Into the Woods
by W.M.Hunt
Summary: Under tragic circumstances, Bella and her little sister Claire are forced to move to Forks, Washington. What they don't realize is that they have stepped into the dark, twisted web of the town's hidden secrets. Unsure of who they can trust, and quickly getting pulled deeper into the town's darkness, their time is running out, and soon they will have no where left to run.
1. Chapter 1

_Oh hello there everyone! New readers, and old friends! I know that I have another story that's a work in progress, but this idea just wouldn't leave me alone! (I won't be abandoning the other story, but progress will be slower). Now! Before we begin, just a few warnings: _

_This fiction is rated as an M for mature content. If you are below the age of 18, please evacuate the area immediately in an orderly manner. This story includes swearing, mentions of suicide, underage drug and alcohol use, and mature sexual content. _

_If any of those things make you uncomfortable, and you still wish to read, please proceed with caution. This story also contains supernatural themes, but please keep in mind that these are not the monsters that Stephanie Meyer created and not everything is as it seems... _

_Anyway! I hope you all enjoy this new story! Happy reading! ~W. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story._

**Chapter 1**

When the plane landed it was raining, and I wasn't surprised.

The sky looked like a piece of paper smudged with graphite. Dark gray and streaking while the clouds leaked out the kind of rain that stung your face when you walked through it.

We had taken a charter plane from the Seattle airport to the town of Port Angeles that was much closer to our destination of Forks, Washington. While Claire had been a trooper throughout the plane ride from Arizona to Washington, she had fallen asleep after we had boarded the charter plane. Her tiny body was now in my arms as I tried to shield her face from the stinging rain. The other gentleman that had taken the flight with us, and older man named Garrett had kindly offered to carry our luggage into the small waiting office on the airfield.

After he had seen us inside and I had situated myself onto a chair with Claire's unconscious body draped across mine, he left with a slight smile and a nod, hoping that we did well on our trip.

I tried hard not to roll my eyes and snap at him that this wasn't a fucking vacation we were on.

The anger bubbled up inside of me and the words were on the tip of my tongue. But as I had been doing for the past two weeks, I swallowed them back down like a bitter pill. It would be pointless and in the process of cussing him out I probably would have woken up Claire. And God knows she needed her sleep.

For the first few days after everything had happened, we had stayed at our neighbor's house. She was an elderly woman named Mrs. Kittridge. She'd been widowed for almost seven years, and her house smelled of cat pee and cabbage. Floral drapings covered almost every surface, and the bedsheets in the guest room crackled, and stunk of must from years of no use.

It had all been so wrong, and even I hadn't been able to sleep. Claire would crawl out of her bed every night and cuddle herself up beside my body. She would ask when we were going home, and every night I would have nothing to tell her.

What do you tell your four year old sister?

How do you tell her that you had found your mother's body, lying in a pool of her own blood?

Are there any words to use to tell her that she would never be going home. Mom was never going to pick us up. We were going to have to uproot everything and leave because our mother had left us.

As if she could sense the dark twist in my thoughts, Claire stirred in her sleep. A soft little noise escaped her tiny body, and her head shifted on my shoulder. Her blonde hair was pulled into to curly little pigtails, and I could feel the small puffs of her breath on my shoulder where my t-shirt had fallen away.

Trying to calm myself down, I looked around the small office. There was one woman manning the desk on the other side of the room, and I could hear the distant rumble of thunder, and the tapping of rain on the roof. Suddenly, the front door to the office opened up and in stepped a rain drenched man. For a second I was going to ignore him, but then I realized that he was exactly the man we had been waiting for.

I hadn't seen my father Charlie in almost ten years. He'd send me birthday cards with some money every year, and he'd always call for special occasions. He'd never even met Claire. Although, considering she wasn't even his, I didn't think he was expected to. But that hadn't stopped him from sending cards to her too.

His curly brown hair was thinning on his head, and his brown eyes looked a bit water. He was also wearing his police uniform, and I wondered briefly if he'd driven the cruiser.

I had always been told that I looked more like Charlie than… my mother. I had his brown hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. As well as his short temper and difficulty showing emotions. Claire was entirely my mother though, which was good since Renee couldn't remember who her father was. Claire was all blonde hair, blue eyes, and dimples. Though she hadn't smiled for two weeks.

"Isabella?" Charlie said hesitantly as he drew closer. I stood carefully, trying not to jostle the sleeping girl in my arms.

"It's Bella now, actually," I corrected quietly as I leaned down to grab our bags.

"Here I'll get that," Charlie quickly intercepted and grabbed the two simple duffle bags and the backpack that had been our only luggage.

"Thanks," I said simply, and then followed him out of the office, nodding slightly to the woman behind the desk, who had been watching the interaction.

Once again shielding Claire's face, I followed Charlie out into the parking lot, only to see that he had indeed driven the police cruiser to pick us up. Opening the back door, I slid into the backseat and rearranged my little sister once again. She whimpered slightly in her sleep, and I smoothed her hair back from her face, trying to soothe her. During the times she had managed to fall asleep over the past two weeks, she had always woken with nightmares. I always consoled her, while I thought to myself that if I had been able to sleep well enough to dream, then I would be having nightmares as well.

Charlie finished putting our bags into the trunk and slid into the front seat. There was a metal grate between the front and back seat, as there was in most police cars.

It was quiet for a long moment between us, just listening to the rain outside.

"I just want you to know how sorry I am for all of this, Is- Bella. I loved your mom a lot, and I just hope that I can make this a good enough home for the both of you," Charlie finally spoke, turning around to look at me through the metal grate.

Turning my face away, I looked out the window at the water sluicing down the glass, "It's not your fault she's dead Charlie. That's all on Renee," I spoke softly, though my words had a clear bite to them.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Charlie nod, and the car rumbled to life. As we started to drive, the thick forest trees on either side of the road blocked out all of the remaining light that was in the gray sky. I could feel the familiar burn of tears threatening to break from my eyes, but I deepened my breathing. Determined not to let them slip out.

I had done my crying. I had screamed, I had yelled, I'd thrown things and beat the walls bloody with my hands. There was even a new scar four inches long on my thigh where a piece of the mirror I had punched had fallen and sliced open my skin. I remember how I had just stared at the blood that covered my hands and seeped from the slice on my thigh.

I hadn't seen my own blood.

All I had seen was the pool of sticky red that had surrounded my mother. Her lifeless blue eyes were clouded over, her mouth slightly ajar, and so much blood. The teal peasant skirt that had always been her favorite was soaked into a different color. It was dark, and wrong. Just the thought of it made my stomach turn, even now, driving in this car, hundreds of miles away from Phoenix.

Washington hadn't been my first choice. I begged the police officers and the child protection agents to let me keep Claire on my own. Next year I would be turning eighteen. What was one year in the scheme of all that had happened?

I explained to them that I had practically raised Claire on my own so far. My mother was so flighty that I had learned at a young age to do things for myself. By the time I was nine I had been sending in bills on my walk to school to make sure that our water or electricity wasn't shut off. I could cook, and clean, and when Claire had been born, I was the one to change her diapers and wake up in the middle of the night when she cried, and our mother was passed out in a stupor on the couch. Unable to even help herself.

I begged them to let me be on my own. I didn't want to go to some tiny town in the North Pacific. There was nothing for me there. I hadn't seen my father since I was seven and I'd decided that spending the summer with him wasn't nearly as fun as I'd thought it was when I was four. But they had all stated that the law was clear, and that until I actually turned eighteen, I would have to live with my father. Even if that meant leaving the house that Claire had known through her entire life and moving to some kind of bumfuck town in the middle of the pacific Northwest.

I wasn't sure how long I had been lost in my thoughts, but when the car finally stopped, I realized we were parked in front of the house I'd spent my first few years of childhood in. The street lamps cast it in a dim, yellowish color, and with that little light I could tell that it needed a paint job. But for the most part, it looked exactly as it had when I had left ten years ago.

"I'll bring in your bags, the door should be unlocked. I haven't cleaned out your old room entirely, so there's an air mattress-"

I didn't bother listening to the rest of what Charlie had to say. I got out of the cruiser, and walked quickly through the gravel to the front door, opening the front door and stepping into the entryway. Reaching out in the darkness, I slid my hand along the wall until i felt a light switch, and turned on the lights in the hallway.

From behind me I heard Charlie stepped through the doorway, and shut the front door behind him.

"The living room is right-" Charlie started, but I cut him off again.

"Through here, I know. I can remember," I said softly. Turning to my left I walked through the archway that led into another dark room. I heard the click of a lamp being turned on and the room was suddenly illuminated. The battered old blue couch was still pushed against the closest wall, and a leather chair sat next to the bay window that faced the front yard. Although the old television set had been swapped out for a flat screen TV and I could see that my school pictures up until seventh grade, when I had stopped sending them, were still sitting above the fireplace on the mantel.

On the ground there was an air mattress already blown up with several blankets piled onto it, and a couple of pillows. Gently, I kneeled down next onto the floor and pulled back the top blankets on the bed to lay down Claire. Careful not to wake her I gently eased her out of her pink rain coat, and her little boots and sock, then I slowly eased the small elastics out of her hair and let her soft blond curls fan out.

Leaning back on my heels, I felt as though I was going to cry. Her face was completely relaxed in her sleep. She looked so untroubled. When she was awake, she would sometimes cry, or get angry, asking when mom was coming back from her trip. And each time, another aching crack would appear in my chest when I had to tell her that mommy was never coming back from her trip. She had gone to see the angels up in heaven, and she was never going to see mommy again.

There would be no more midnight wake-up calls to go and drive to the canyon and watch the stars. No more making pancakes, but instead having a war throwing batter at one another, until there wasn't even enough in the bowl to make breakfast and they had to settle for cereal. Never again would they wake up on Valentines day, or any other random holiday with either a basket full of goodies, or a note apologizing for how she was out with a friend and that she'd left money for pizza. No more hugs scented like incense, no more random fads of yoga, or knitting, or building fairy houses for ebay. All of it was gone.

And I had no idea where to begin again.

"Are you going to be okay down here, Bella?" Charlie asked in a gruff whisper.

It took me a long time to answer him, but eventually I breathed in deeply and turned to look at him.

"Yeah dad, I'll be fine," I replied. I hoped that he could see at least a part of my apology in my eyes. How do other people find the words to explain how they're feeling?

_I'm sorry I'm not good at this._

_I'm sorry I'm scared._

_I'm sorry that I'm so angry and sad, and just broken into little pieces._

"That's good… I guess I'll see you in the morning then," Charlie said and looked down at his shuffling feet.

"Sounds good… Good night," I said again. He turned and left the room, and I watched him walk up the stairs towards the second floor. I could hear him walking around in his bedroom for a while, and then the loud creaking of something, probably his bed, and then silence.

The thunder still rumbled in the distance, like the purr of a giant beast. The rain tapped against the window, and the street lamps flickered slightly. Sighing I reached for my duffle bag and pulled out a pair of shorts and a tshirt for bed. Knowing Claire, she was going to be laying on top of me within five minutes of crawling into bed, and for some reason, her little body gave off the same amount of heat as a sauna.

After changing quickly and throwing my hair up into a messy bun, I turned out the lamp in the living room and shuffled onto the mattress under the blankets next to Claire. As predicted, her little hands searched me out under the blankets and I pulled her little body in close to my own. Her breathing was against my neck once again and stray hairs tickled my nose.

With a shaky breath I settled in for another sleepless night, with only my dark thoughts, and the equally dark night to keep me company.

* * *

_Leave a comment if you'd like to! Thank you for reading._


	2. Chapter 2

_Thank you to all who gave this story a chance! I hope I don't disappoint! Thank you also to the lovely reviews I got yesterday, I hope you all enjoy the chapter._

_Warning: Swearing, and mentions of suicide... And some growling._

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story._

**Chapter 2**

The next morning, since I hadn't actually fallen asleep that night, I was up with the light of the new day. The sky was still streaked with gray, but the rain had finally stopped. For a while I lay there in the bed, with Claire clinging to me like a little monkey, wondering what time Charlie usually got up, and whether or not he drank any coffee. I doubted that he had the kind of tea that I liked to drink in the morning. I then started to make a mental grocery list in my mind, of all the things we would need to get.

Finally, when the clock on the cable box read six thirty, I untangled myself from the tiny limbs, and padded across the chilly floors into the tiny kitchen. The cabinets were still yellow, but there was a new refrigerator and dishwasher. Looking through some of the cabinets I was correct that I didn't find any tea, so I quickly set about making a pot of coffee.

While it was brewing I looked through the fridge for something to make for breakfast. Thankfully there was a carton of eggs and some orange juice. Although there were absolutely no vegetables or fruits in sight. Sighing I started to look for a pad of paper to start making an actual list on. After about half an hour, I heard Charlie's boots coming down the stairs.

As he walked into the kitchen, our eyes met briefly before quickly looking away.

Charlie cleared his throat as he made his way to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup.

"How'd you sleep last night?" he asked awkwardly, leaning against the opposite counter that I had been hunched over.

"Fine," I replied quickly, scribbling down a few more items on the list.

"Good, good… Well… How'd Claire sleep?" he asked again.

"Fine," I muttered, the grip on my pencil tightening.

From behind me I heard him set down his coffee mug on the plastic counter.

"Look, Bella. I know that this wasn't what you wanted to do. But I can only hope that-" Charlie started, but I whirled around and caught him in my stare.

"That what, Charlie? That we'd waltz in here and everything would be perfect? A nice little family set up for you again, huh? You think we can just forget what happened back in Phoenix? That we can just settle right in here, and be happy?" I growled.

"Now look here, I know you're still going through a lot, emotionally and mentally, but that's no excuse to-" I cut him off again, despite the fact his face was an ungodly shade of red, either out of anger or embarrassment, I didn't care.

"My fucking mother killed herself. Slit her wrists and her throat, right in the middle of her own bedroom. I think that's a perfect fucking excuse," I snarled at him, making a move to step forward. I wasn't sure if I had been about to hit him or yell some more, but the sound of a small sniff made me stop on a dime.

My eyes swung to the hallway where Claire was now standing in her pink striped leggings and white shirt, rubbing her eyes and yawning tiredly. As she blinked open those big, ocean blue eyes I stepped towards her and crouched down.

"Hey there, baby girl. How'd you sleep? You were so tired!" I said to her, trying to make the tense sound of my voice go away.

"Why were you and Charlie arguing?" Claire asked in her sleepy voice and I turned slightly to see that Charlie was looking at her too.

"We weren't arguing, Claire… We were just talking about what we're going to do today," I said, trying to steer her away from that conversation.

"It didn't sound like that," Claire said, her blue eyes looking me over in the curious way that all small children do. As if they could see straight through our lies.

"That's because I'm just a little bit tired, and I woke up a bit grumpy. I'm sorry you heard us. Did we wake you up?" I asked, pushing some blonde hair out of her face and standing up to my full height again.

She shook her head, making her curls bounce around her face. "No, the sun came in the window."

"Right… We'll be moved in upstairs hopefully tonight, and there are some curtains up there. How about that? Now… Are eggs okay for breakfast?" I asked, walking towards the fridge and pulling out the carton as well as the orange juice.

Claire nodded her head again and moved closer to my leg. I lifted my eyes to Charlie's which were still locked on Claire.

"Do you want some eggs?" I asked casually. His eyes met mine, and in that moment I think he understood that it wasn't just breakfast, but rather a peace offering.

"Sure," he managed to force the word out before taking another long drink of coffee.

"Why don't you have a breakfast table?" Claire asked suddenly, and Charlie looked down to see her staring at him.

"Uhm, what?" Charlie asked, as if he hadn't heard the question.

"We used to have two tables at home. One for breakfast, and one for lunch and dinner. But you don't have any tables," Claire said quietly. I kept my eyes trained on the eggs I was cracking into the pan.

Charlie was silent for a long moment before he cleared his throat, "Uh… Well I don't know… I guess I'll have to get one, won't I?" he asked. I didn't see if Claire responded or not, but by the time I was dishing out eggs, she had wandered back into the living room and she had turned on the television. Although, she was watching some kind of infomercial for a blender.

I handed Charlie his plate of eggs and then went into the living room and gave Claire hers with a glass of orange juice. As we all sat down on the couch eating our eggs we watched an infomercial about the Magic Bullet.

I didn't dare to try and change the channel, and Charlie seemed to have the same idea. So we chewed slowly, and listened to the over exuberant man on screen tell us how we couldn't live without this product.

"I'm making a list of stuff for groceries. I was thinking about going later. Also I have to stop and get some stuff for Claire for school on Monday. She needs some new notebooks," I said casually.

"I'll leave some money for you. I have a night shift. Four to midnight," he responded with and I nodded. At least I wouldn't have to worry about making awkward conversation with him for a few hours. Considering it was Saturday and I'd have more than enough awkward conversation on Monday when I started classes as a student at Forks High School.

The rest of the morning progressed in a similar manner. Claire didn't start any more conversations, which was normal. It was surprising that she had even spoke at all this morning. And Charlie and I had come to some kind of don't ask, it'll only end badly, agreement.

Once I helped Claire into a bath and some new clothes, I settled her down with a television show and took my own shower.

Before getting into the warm water I stared at myself in the mirror. My cheekbones were sharp, and my skin looked pale, almost as if I was sick. There were dark shadows under my eyes from getting barely twelve hours of sleep in the past two weeks. The scars on my palms and knuckles were silvery white and stood out prominently, and the gash on my thigh was still a pink, puckered line with some scabs on it.

I had always been knobby. Sharp, awkward angles instead of flowing voluptuous curves. I was extremely far from being ample in any department. Small boobs, small ass. My mother used to call me a stick with pretty hair. Even the thought of those joking compliments sent a stab of pain through the hollow spot in my chest.

Sighing, I walked under the spray and washed up quickly. Once I got out and dried off I jumped into the pair of black leggings, and a black tanktop. I brushed out my hair and brushed my teeth, then jogged back downstairs. Claire and Charlie were both sitting on the couch watching television where I'd left them.

"You want to come shopping with my Claire, or stay here with Charlie?" I asked. Although it felt awkward saying it, technically Charlie was not Claire's father, and I didn't want her to feel as though she had to call him that.

She looked away from the TV for a brief second and pointed down to the ground a few times.

"Awesome," I muttered, "Do you mind staying with her for a bit?"

Charlie shook his head absently, obviously interested with the brightly colored cartoon on the TV. I rolled my eyes, "Do you at least have that cash? And some car keys? And directions to the store?"

"Oh right," Charlie dug through his pockets and pulled out his wallet, extracting some crisp twenty dollar bills and the keys to the cruiser. He quickly explained how to get to the grocery store on the other side of town, and said that the closest general store, unless I wanted to go to Port Angeles was on the reservation, "They don't really take to strangers on their land, but if anyone gives you trouble, just tell them that I sent you. No one should bother you."

"Right," I said, "Thanks."

Rummaging around in my duffle bag I pulled out my favorite red hoodie, and then slipped on my back boots. I kissed Claire on the top of the head, and she responded with pushing my shoulder out of the way so she could see her show.

"I'll be back in an hour," I said as I left the house.

Even though it was only September, the leaves had already begun to change, although they were much soggier here. Getting into the cruiser I saw it was an automatic. Happy enough, I backed out of the driveway and drove into town.

The grocery store was three times smaller than the smallest one in Phoenix and I wondered if they'd even have everything I wanted. But it turned out that they even had the kind of tea that I had been hoping to get. I got a few things for dinner to make for the next few nights until I could go shopping again.

As I unloaded everything onto the checkout, my thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

"Hey, do I know you?" asked the voice. I looked up and saw a girl, with very curly brown hair and curious eyes. She was chomping on a piece of pink bubblegum and the name on her nametag read Jessica.

"Uh… No, I don't think so. I'm new here," I responded, still unloading my things.

"Oh… Are you like the new girl? The chief's daughter?" she asked.

"Yeah… That's me…" I muttered again, rolling my eyes slightly, though she didn't seem to have seen.

"That's cool. What's your name? Are you going to be going to Forks High?" she asked.

"Yup… I'm Bella," I said, finally out of items to distract myself with.

"Well, I'm Jessica," she stated the obvious and I nearly snorted, "I'm a junior."

"So am I," I replied, quickly taking the things she had bagged and stuffing them back into my cart.

"That's great! We can totally sit with each other at lunch and stuff! I'll introduce you to all of my friends! We have such a great group, this is going to be so much fun," she nearly squealed in excitement, and I jumped at the noise. If she was going to keep that up, then I definitely would not be doing anything with her. Instead of saying that, I plastered a grimace onto my face that I hoped at least resembled a smile.

"That would be cool, thanks. I gotta be going now, though… See yah," I said quickly, paying her and pushing my cart away.

"See you on Monday, Bella!" she called after me, and I cringed slightly. Dear God she was loud.

Walking back out to the car I shoved all of the bags into the back seat, hoping that nothing would slide around on the plastic seat and then got back into the car. The directions Charlie gave me to the reservation were simple enough, and I started to think about what he meant that they didn't like strangers on their land. Did they just not like white people on their land? Considering the entire history of America that wasn't too hard to believe.

Finally I made it onto the reservation and started peering around at the houses that were far apart from each other. They were not showy, rather simple, and surrounded by the forest. There was no reason to worry about neighbors apparently.

When my eyes locked onto the small sign that signaled the general store, I pulled into a space and hopped out, hoping to get this over with quickly.

Pulling down my hood as I walked into the shop, a small bell signaled my arrival. The place smelled like dry herbs, and a bit of must. Looking around I could see old photographs on the wooden walls and shelves of canned food. Across from me was a small little aisle of school supplies that seemed to have come straight out of the fifties.

Stepping forward I crouched down to search through them for a pink one for Claire's kindergarten notebook. The email had said that the teachers wrote every week in Claire's notebook to tell the parents what was going on in school. I just thought that it was a load of shit.

Finally settling on a red one, and wondering how I was going to placate Claire later with the color, I dug out the crumpled five dollar bill that was left, and made my way towards the front counter. Behind the counter there was a boy that looked native. He was dressed in a ratty pair of jean cutoff shorts, and a dirty blue tshirt stretched tight across his chest. However, his head was tipped forward, chin tucked against his chest and from the slight snoring sound that rumbled through him, he seemed to be sleeping.

Rolling my eyes, I huffed and looked around the counter. My eyes landed on a silver bell, that apparently had been installed for this purpose exactly. Holding my hand out over it, and keeping my eyes on the sleeping boy, I slammed my hand down on the bell and let it ring loudly.

The effect was immediately, and honestly it was as if I had shot the boy instead of just ringing a bell. His eyes shot open, and his neck cracked with how fast he seemed to move as he stood off of his stool, and looked around wildly for some kind of threat.

Holding the notebook to my chest, I debated if I should just run for it. Finally his eyes seemed to focus in on the fact that there was a girl standing in front of him. I raised my hand slowly towards him, in either a surrender or a wave, I wasn't sure.

"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice was rough and deep.

"Yeah, I wanted to buy this," I said, holding up the notebook in my other hand.

"That'll be 1.50," the boy said. I threw the crumpled up five onto the counter, which he snatched, and started taking out my change. Just then the front door of the store opened again and it brought in a slight breeze. The bell dinged and I looked over briefly, only to have my eyes glued onto the enormous man that had just walked in. He had to be almost seven feet tall, ducking slightly to avoid the door frame, and he was dressed in denim cutoffs, however he had no shirt on his incredibly defined chest. His raven black hair, hung down in silky strands to his elbows, and his skin was a gorgeous russet color.

I felt my cheeks heat up as I realized that I had just done a full eye-fucking of this total stranger. And in a place where they probably didn't even appreciate my company anyway! However, when I looked up I found that my apology had died on my lips completely. His eyes which were the darkest color brown, almost black stared back at me, and I felt about two inches tall in that moment. They were like twin black holes that were sucking me in effortlessly. As though my soul were being siphoned out of my being, and being transformed into something else entirely.

And then I heard a rumbling. For a moment I thought it was thunder, but I couldn't hear any rain outside. Then I realized that it was coming from behind me. Tearing my eyes away from the dark eyes of the enormous stranger, I saw that the boy behind the counter was now glaring at me, his teeth slightly bared.

I squeaked in fear, when he started to move around the counter. Grabbing the notebook off of the counter, I ignored the change that the boy now had a death grip on. I did not look away from the boy's eyes, which for some reason looked completely different than they had only a minute ago. They somehow looked more feral.

The growling didn't stop as I backed away from the cashier boy, and to my surprise, an echoing growl joined it from behind me.

This growl was deeper, and more menacing, but the strangest sensation settled over me, making me feel as though it wasn't directed at me.

I could see the cashier boy flinch at the sound, but he still kept stalking towards me slowly.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. I know you don't really like strangers around here but, uhm... I'm Charlie Swan's daughter. I just was going, now. Sorry," I managed to breath out through my fear, but the boy seemed to have not heard me.

Then without warning, the boy lunged towards me, and I scrunched my eyes closed, waiting for the boy to start attacking. However the only thing that happened was that I was shoved back a bit by a warm, firm hand, and an echoing growl reverberated around the room. I opened my eyes again just in time to see the enormous man shoving the slightly shorter cashier boy into a shelf full of canned food. His hand tight around his throat, and his dark eyes glinting menacingly.

Before anything else weird could happen, I leapt pulled open the door, ignoring the snarls and growling coming from the two native men in the general store and ran back to the car. Throwing the notebook onto the passenger side, I jammed the keys back into the ignition and peeled out of the parking lot back towards town.

Once I got back home, I unloaded the groceries silently. Charlie offered to help make some lunch, but I waved him off, needing some time on my own to process what had happened. Claire was being entertained by some old toys that Charlie had pulled down from the attic that had once been mine. He had even started cleaning out the old bedroom while I'd been gone.

As I finished the grilled cheese sandwiches and presented Claire with her notebook that had almost gotten me killed, as predicted she asked if she could go back and get a pink one.

"No!" I nearly shouted at the very thought of Claire going back into that shop owned by a crazy boy. Charlie eyed me curiously, and I looked down, "The red one will have to be okay, Claire. Maybe some other weekend we'll go into Port Angeles and look around, okay?"

She seemed placated with that, and began munching on her sandwich. However Charlie was not so easily fooled.

"Something happen down on the res, Bella?" he asked carefully as he fixed his own plate beside me.

"Nothing too interesting," I muttered, hoping that he would drop it. I should have known that I wouldn't get so lucky.

"You didn't run into anyone down there? Nobody said anything to you?" he asked. I could feel his eyes on me, but I truly wanted this conversation to be over.

"Not at all. the boy in the shop was super nice. I even met some girl from the high school at the grocery store. Someone named Jessica?" I said, steering conversation away. I didn't want to think about the way that cashier boy had looked at me. Like he was about to kill me.

"Probably the Stanley's girl… Her older sister graduated last year. Or maybe it was two years ago. Don't remember. Was she nice at least?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I guess so… Kind of loud. And she chewed with her mouth open," I muttered, biting into my grilled cheese. Charlie chuckled and began eating his own lunch. And that was the end of that.

xXx

By the time darkness fell, the room upstairs had been entirely cleaned out, thanks to Charlie and myself. I had forgotten how small the room actually was. The walls were still painted purple, much to Claire's delight, and Charlie had procured an extra twin bed from someone he worked with who no longer needed it. It was now set up so that my bed lay underneath the window that faced the back yard with the small side table in the middle, and Claire's bed pushed against the opposite wall. There was barely enough room at the end of my bed to put the writing desk, and the door hit the desk chair when you tried to close it, but at least it was a private space.

Claire was also happy that she got my old pink bedspread from when I had been little. I had unpacked all of our clothes into the closet and the small dresser that had been shoved inside of the closet. We barely took up all of the space inside of it with the clothes we'd packed, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing.

After a simple dinner of spaghetti, Charlie had left for his shift, leaving me to complete the bedtime routine with Claire at eight thirty. She was excited to sleep in her own bed, with her new sheets at dinner time, but when I had declared it was time to go to bed, she had broke down into a temper tantrum, screaming that she wanted mommy to get her ready for bed. It was when she had been screaming loud enough to cause suspicion in the neighborhood that I had finally broken the last thread of restraint I had and took her shoulders in my hands. Her angry, tearful blue eyes stared at mine as she wiggled and tried to free herself.

"Mommy is_ never coming back_. Do you understand, Claire? Claire! She is _dead_, and you can't come back from being dead! You just can't! She's not on a trip, she's _gone_. So stop asking for her!" I nearly shouted, my own throat aching from trying not to break down in tears as well.

My words made Claire quiet down, as she stared at me wide eyed, while I slumped to the floor and rubbed my face in my hands.

This was not how it was supposed to be.

Finally after a very long time, Claire whispered.

"Can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

Taking a deep breath and brushing away the stray tear on my cheek, I looked up at her and nodded, "Yeah, baby, you can sleep with me."

And so, Claire climbed into the tiny twin bed, and I followed in after her. Letting her rest her tiny head on my shoulder and feeling her breath on my neck.

Outside I could hear it had started to rain again, and as I lay there listening to Claire's breath even out, I closed my own eyes and tried to remember what it was like to have a good night's sleep. As I lay there in bed, wishing I could fall asleep, I felt myself drifting off. And before I fell into complete oblivion, I could have sworn I heard a wolf howling in the forest beyond the house.

* * *

_Phew! Bella's all over the place, and we introduce some boys from the res... Who do you think they were? Leave a comment if you'd like too, and thank you so much for reading!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Oh man! I'm so happy that a lot of you are enjoying this so far! Like I said, this story just wouldn't leave my head! Thanks to the comments that people gave, they are very much appreciated! I hope you all enjoy the chapter._

_Warning: Swearing, and mentions of suicide... And some small town, small mindedness._

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story._

**Chapter 3**

When Monday morning rolled around, I had contemplated several different ways to get out of going to school. The first idea had been just ditching, but with Charlie being a cop and all, I decided it wasn't fair to make him look bad just because I was being a whimp. The next few all included various diseases that I thought I would be able to pull off making Charlie think I had them. But then I thought how I would go absolutely crazy being bedridden for a day. So finally I had grudgingly made myself get ready for the day, while also helping Claire.

Dressing myself in a simple pair of jeans, an olive colored sweater, forgoing a bra just because I could with this shirt, and my pair of worn out black chucks. I left my hair down, still messy from sleeping on it, and not bothering to brush it. I got Claire dressed into a little pink tshirt, and a pair of purple and pink striped leggings, and got together all of her school supplies.

At exactly eight o'clock, the yellow bus pulled up to the house and I crouched down in front of Claire.

"You be good today, okay? I don't want any bad reports in that journal," I told her, half serious and half joking. I wasn't sure how Claire was going to react on her first day in a new kindergarten, only a couple of weeks after losing her mother. However, she smiled at me and nodded, her curly blonde hair bouncing around her face. I gave her a hug and a kiss on the head before helping her onto the bus. Waving to her as the bus drove away, I hitched my bag up higher onto my shoulder and turned to get into the cruiser with Charlie.

He was quiet as he drove me to school. The only thing that he said as he pulled up in the parking lot was that we'd have to figure out a car situation for myself, in case I had to get to school earlier than he left. I nodded and said goodbye, trying to ignore the stares I was getting from the kids that had already arrived. They all seemed to be interested in who the new girl was, getting dropped off by her dad no less.

Groaning quietly under my breath I tried to hold my head up higher as I walked into the school. The office was right in the entryway, and as I walked in, a chipper gray haired woman immediately introduced herself as Mrs. Cope. In a flurry of activity she gave me a sheet of paper to has signed by all of my teachers, a schedule for my classes, all the necessary paperwork I needed in case I wanted to get a parking permit, a slip of paper with a locker number and combination on it, and a map of the school. She even directed me towards my first class, which was English.

I thanked her, still in somewhat of a daze because of all the information she had thrown at me as I wandered through the halls. The kids that were still meandering their way towards class staring at me the whole time. I tried hard to ignore them as I found the classroom and slipped inside.

It already seemed filled and there was an older woman standing at the front. I walked up to her, and she looked me in the eye with her own beady blue ones.

"And you are?" she asked rudely.

Eyebrows furrowing, I held out my slip for her to sign, "I'm new here."

Looking over it the woman nodded, then looked back at me, "Isabella Swan?"

"It's Bella, actually. I prefer Bella," I corrected.

"Right, I'm Mrs. Geoff," she said as she signed the paper with a flourish, "Go and find a seat, and then come to me after class for a syllabus and the list of books for this year."

I nodded as she handed me back the paper and sent me towards the desks. Without making eye contact with anyone, I slipped into a seat and distracted myself with shuffling around my papers.

From beside me, someone whispered. Looking over I saw a blonde boy with his hair spiked up and baby blue eyes. He sort of looked like a golden retriever puppy. "Hey, you're new," he stated.

"Very astute of you to notice," I muttered, looking back at my papers. From beside me the boy barked a laugh and I looked back at him, noticing he was now holding out a hand towards me.

"I'm Mike. Michael Newton. My family owns the sporting goods store in town. It's also called Newtons," he rambled off, and I quickly shook his hand, hoping it would shut him up.

"I'm Bella Swan," I supplied, pulling my hand out of his grip and facing the front again. Mrs. Geoff had started teaching, but Mike hadn't seemed to notice as he kept whispering.

"So, can I see you schedule? Maybe we have the same classes together," he said, and I closed my eyes, to avoid rolling them back into my brain at how annoying he was.

"Maybe later, I'm trying to listen," I said simply, not sparing him another glance. It was then that Mike huffed a breath, as though I had offended him, and he flopped back into his seat.

For the rest of the class he didn't speak to me, which was fine with me. When the bell rang he quickly snatched my bag off of the desk.

"I figure I can walk you to your next class," he spoke, as though I had asked him. I reached for my bag, but he stepped away slightly. Glaring at him, I kept my tone quiet so that the other students wouldn't overhear.

"I have to go speak to the teacher, Mike Newton," I nearly spat at him.

"Oh, well, I can wait for you," he said.

"No, you won't. Now give me my fucking bag, and leave me alone," I snapped at him, grabbing the bag out of his hands forcefully, as he looked at me with the face of a puppy who had just been thoroughly kicked. Without another word, I turned and went up to the front desk. I hoped, that he had left, as I spoke to Mrs. Geoff.

Afterwards, I was pleased to see that Mike was not waiting for me, and I made my way towards my next class.

The day followed a monotonous pattern as I walked from class to class, got signatures, met new students who were all so interested by the new girl, and gathered up syllabuses.

Finally by the time it was lunch, I was near dog tired. I was at the end of my rope with students looking at me as if I was a zoo animal, and if I had to read one more god damned syllabus I was going to kill someone.

Thankfully, the lunch line wasn't long and I grabbed a slice of pizza and a carton of milk. Looking around the cafeteria, I found myself panic for a moment that I'd have nowhere to sit, however I saw that the girl from the grocery store, Jessica, was waving at me from a few tables over. Walking over, I saw she was sitting in a small group of kids. I stifled a groan when I saw that one of them was Mike.

"Hey there Bella! I'm so happy you're joining us!" Jessica said exuberantly. I merely nodded and hoped that my smile looked genuine, "Let me introduce you to everyone."

"We've already met! We have English together with Mrs. Geoff in first period," Mike spoke up quickly, his blue eyes looking at me. I ignored him and looked at Jessica for her to continue.

"Right… So you've met Mike. That's Erik, Lauren, Tyler, Angela and Ben. And obviously, I'm Jessica," she giggled and snapped her pink bubblegum again. I looked around at the other faces.

Erik was looking at me curiously, but Lauren seemed to be concerned with the salad she was pretending to eat and Tyler looked more interested with looking down Lauren's shirt than at me. Meanwhile, the girl Angela smiled at me pleasantly, and the boy beside her, Ben was holding her hand on the table.

"It's nice to meet you Bella," Angela said softly.

"Thanks," I said, as I sat between her and Jessica. I took a bite out of my pizza, and started opening my milk.

"So where'd you move from?" asked Ben.

"Phoenix," I replied, swallowing down my pizza.

"Shouldn't you be, like, tan?" Jessica asked quickly and I tried not to snort.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just albino or something," I tried to joke, to which she giggled again.

"You're just so funny, Bella," Jess stated, and I tried not to exude sarcasm and look as though I believed her compliment when the girl Lauren butted in.

"Don't look now. Here comes the freak," she said in a nasally voice. I looked around slowly and saw that a boy had just walked into the cafeteria from the outside courtyard. His face was cast downward, and his body was lanky dressed in black slacks and a white button up shirt. Hardly the kind of clothes for a normal school day. And on top of his head was a shock of copper hair.

"Who's that?" I asked quietly, so that he wouldn't hear as he passed the table and made his way towards the food line.

"That's Edward Masen," Jessica started.

"Also known as the freak," Mike pointed out, as though I hadn't already heard the insult from Lauren.

"Yeah, he's like, super weird. Never talks to anyone except his imaginary friends. I heard his family's loaded though… He's like, a super nerd. Always reading books and stuff. I've never seen him at a football game either," Jessica said. As if it were the greatest crime in the world to have not attended the dazzling spectacle of a Forks high football game.

"So why call him a freak? Seems like he just bit quirky and likes to read. What's wrong with that?" I asked, taking another bite of my pizza.

"The problem, Bella, is that he's fucking weird. He talks to himself all the time. He even tried to kill himself a few months back. Probably because he's too stupid to even save his own mother," Lauren snapped, eyeing me like a hunter might look at a potential prey. However I barely noticed her look. I was more focused on her words.

"What do you mean, save his mother?" I asked in a slow voice.

"Well… The word around town was that Mrs. Masen was having an affair with the local doctor, Carlisle Cullen. Everyone says that she got knocked up by him, but when she had a miscarriage about a year ago, she drove down to the reservation and threw herself off the cliff. They never found her body either." Jessica replied and before I knew what was happening I found myself standing up at the table. My chair was knocked backward, and for a second my vision was blurry.

"Are you all fucking crazy? You're going to sit here and call that boy a freak and a weirdo after he's just lost his fucking mom? What kind of human beings are you?" I snarled at them, looking them all in the eyes. Jessica seemed to be speechless from what had just happened, but Lauren seemed to take it in stride.

"Oh, I guess we should have known that you'd stick up for him, huh? Didn't your mom kill herself too?" she asked.

I felt stunned. The world around me seemed to blur together. My stomach had dropped down out of my body, and I felt as though I might be sick. However instead of puking, I walked around the table until I was in front of Lauren. She looked up at me and opened her mouth, her eyes flashing dangerously with the knowledge that she'd hit a nerve inside of me. But I didn't give her a chance to speak.

Instead, my fist slammed straight into her nose, and then again into her cheek. Everyone at the table had stood up, and I wound my fist backwards again to try and punch Lauren in the face one more time, when I was grabbed around the middle and dragged backwards. Struggling slightly I turned around, only to have my wrist gripped tightly and have my body dragged out of the cafeteria and out into the misty afternoon.

Once the fresh air had cleared my head a bit of the fury I had felt I realized who it was that was dragging me along outside.

None other, than Edward Masen himself.

I still couldn't see his face since he faced forward as he pulled me along until we were walking across the football field and were behind the bleachers near the edge of the forest. It was here that he let go of my wrist and dropped my bag onto the soggy ground. Still facing away from me he threw his hands into his penny colored hair and tugged angrily.

Finally he turned around and I saw that he had the sharpest green eyes I'd ever seen. His skin was so pale it looked as though he was almost sick. Dark rings were around his eyes, and his hand tugged on his hair.

"Why did you do that? Why?" he growled out, his eyes flashing.

"Uh… Well… I don't know, maybe because she was being a bitch?" I shrugged at him, planting a hand on my hip and staring straight back at him.

"You don't even know me," he said in the same tight voice.

"Well excuse me for knowing when it's wrong to talk about someone like that. You should be thanking me! Now she will know better than to talk about people like that," I ground out at him. This boy was being infuriating. Couldn't he just say thank you and get on with it?

"Doesn't matter. I'll still just be the freak with the dead mom," he sighed and tugged his hands through his hair, turning away from me again. I didn't think he meant for me to hear that, but I responded anyway.

"Yeah, well, join the club." I muttered under my breath as I leaned down to scoop up my bag. As I moved down I noticed that there were dark spots of blood on my sweater. For a second my mind flashed back to the pool of dark, sticky blood and those lifeless cloudy eyes.

"Whoa, you okay?" Edward's voice floated through my thoughts and I felt his hand on my arm, apparently steadying me from falling over. Putting a hand to my head I straightened myself out.

"Yeah, sorry," I murmured and slung my bag over my shoulder. Edward let go of me as if he'd been burned and then looked me over carefully.

"You don't seem like the other girls at Forks," he said finally.

"I'd hope not. They seem like a bunch of psychos here," I laughed humorlessly. I could have sworn that I'd seen a tug on the corner of his lips, but instead he looked back down at his feet.

"Look… Thanks for sticking up for me back there. But just… don't do it again, alright? Just, if you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from me, and have nothing to do with me, okay?" he said, resuming his angry voice and stomping away from me. Back across the football field towards the school.

"You're welcome," I called at his back, but he did nothing to acknowledge the words. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion at his behavior and his words. He was warning me away from him, and yet I felt compelled to ignore it. How could I, after just finding out that this boy was also grieving for a lost mother?

Maybe it was just the idea of a common bond, or maybe it was something else drawing me towards him. But watching him disappear back into the school, I had already made up my mind to get to know who Edward Masen really was.

xXx

The walk home from the school was excruciating.

I had decided to ditch for the last two classes of the day, and as luck would have it, it had started to rain on my way back. Silently fuming, I trudged through the rain on the nine mile walk back to the house. By the time I was shoving open the front door, my book bag felt like a lead weight on my shoulder. Thoughts of a hot shower and finally getting out of my wet clothes were immediately scourged from my mind when I was met with a purple faced Charlie in the front entryway.

"You punched Lauren Mallory?" he asked in a strained voice. Sighing, I dropped my bag on the ground and closed my eyes.

"Look, I'll apologize tomorrow. She was just saying some awful shit about some other kid. I was doing everyone a favor by shutting her up," I said calmly, hoping that some of it would rub off on Charlie. Unfortunately, I had no such luck.

"On your first day, Bella? Really? Couldn't just go with the flow today, make a few friends. Instead I'm getting calls from Walter Mallory, screaming at me to control my daughter who apparently mauled his daughters face! What am I supposed to do with that, Bella?" he yelled finally. His face was turning extremely red and I wondered if I should have him sit down, but my own angry words left my mouth instead.

"Just go with the flow? This coming from a cop? Shouldn't you be happy that I fucking stood up for someone? She was being a complete bitch to this boy who hadn't even done anything to her. And from the sound of it, nobody else was going to say anything! Sorry for being a good fucking person!" I yelled back at him.

His mouth opened, and his mustache twitched above his lips, but no sound came out. Pushing around him I made my way towards the kitchen to get a glass of water, hoping to calm myself down.

"I am not done speaking with you yet, Isabella!" Charlie growled from behind me. I looked back at him over my shoulder, then walked into the tiny kitchen, rolling my eyes at him. Turning back around I faced the cabinets, and my entire body froze in fear.

Standing in my kitchen, crowding the ceiling and looking extremely intimidating was the tall native man that had walked into the general store the other day. This time he was wearing a pair of dark jeans that surprisingly seemed to fit him, as well as a white, slightly grease stained tshirt. His long ebony hair was now pulled back into a braid, making his incredibly handsome facial features stand out. High cheekbones, a sharp square jaw with a hint of stubble on it, a slightly crooked nose, as if he'd had it broken more than once, and those deep, dark eyes trained directly on my own.

Suppressing a frightened squeak I stepped backwards and plastered myself against the opposite wall, looking down at my feet immediately. The eye contact felt like a tidal wave threatening to suck me under, and I couldn't bear to meet his gaze again.

"Tomorrow you're going to apologize to that girl, as well as Principal Green. He did me a real favor taking you in for classes even after the term started. I'm all for standing up for kids, but when violence is involved I sure as hell don't want my daughter being the instigator. Now, I don't want to hear about any more fights, got it?" Charlie asked, his voice slightly less angry, and more tense.

I didn't reply, my voice seeming to have gotten stuck in my throat with this strange man standing in my kitchen. Not to mention how my eyes were downcast. Charlie seemed to take this as an agreement on my part because he sighed and I could see him shuffle around to face the other formidable man in the kitchen.

"Sorry about that, this is my daughter Bella," he began, "Bella, this is Jacob Black. He owns a contracting business up on the reservation and has promised to build us a table for the kitchen. He's Billy Black's son. Remember him?" Charlie asked.

I could barely restrain the urge to keep my eyes on the ground, as I slowly forced myself to look up at the enormous man still staring straight back at me.

"N-not really. No," I whispered. I hoped that Charlie would just take it as me being thoroughly chastised from his speech rather than scared out of my mind and feeling like I was about to shit myself.

Just the other day I had watched this man pin another boy up against the wall by the throat, and growl at him like some kind of animal. What if he had killed that other boy in the shop? Oh Jesus, should I have stayed there? What if he thought I was now a threat because I had witnessed the entire thing? Was he only pretending to be making a table in order to spy on me and eventually kill me.

My thoughts had both my mind and my stomach in a jumble.

"I wouldn't expect you too. You were just an infant when Jake was going into first grade. Isn't that about right?" Charlie seemed to be asking Jake the maybe serial killer, and I took the opportunity to drop my gaze straight back to the floor. I felt much safer with my eyes on the ground, as though my eye contact would provoke him into grabbing my own throat.

"Yes. I was five years old when Bella was born," Jake's voice flowed into the room like liquid smoke. His voice rumbled deep from within his chest, holding some kind of power that even I could not identify. The sound made my lower belly pool with warmth and a shiver rolled down my spine before I could stop it. I couldn't tell if it was out of fear or pleasure though. In all honesty, I still felt as though I might hurl onto the ground between us.

It was silent in the kitchen for a long moment before Charlie finally spoke again. "Why don't you head upstairs and get changed out of those clothes? You're probably freezing. I'll order a pizza for dinner soon. What time does Claire get off the bus?"

"Soon… The driver said three-thirty this morning," I replied in a near whisper as I edged my way to the door in the hallway. I wasn't going to turn my back on this psycho for even a second.

When I made it to the hallway, I slipped down and grabbed my water logged bag and then sprinted up the stairs to the tiny bedroom I shared with Claire.

Shucking off my chucks into a heap I then shed the rest of my soaking wet clothes and threw them into the hamper. I shivered standing naked in the room for a few seconds before I got on some new underwear and pulled on a pair of ratty old gray sweatpants, a white tank top and my red hoodie. Leaving my wet hair down to dry, I opened up my backpack and pulled out the soaked notebooks to dry out on the desk. There was no way I would be able to do any homework until they were dried off.

I briefly wondered if I should go down again and see if Mr. Jacob Black had left the premises or not yet. After recalling just how large his body was and how much room he had taken up in the kitchen, not to mention the memory of the terrifying snarling noise he'd produced yesterday, I quickly decided against it.

Checking the time on my watch I saw that it was 3:25. The bus with Claire would be here soon. And there was no fucking way I was going to let her spend time alone with that gigantic lunatic.

Throwing on my still squishy chucks I plodded downstairs and could hear Charlie mumbling in the kitchen, probably to sasquatch.

Ducking out the door, I made it to the street just as the little yellow bus pulled up with several screaming children on it. I thanked the bus driver as Claire jumped off of the steps and wrapped her arms around my legs so tightly I wondered if I'd lose circulation.

"Hey baby girl, what's wrong?" I asked slowly, but Claire didn't respond. Finally ungluing her arms from my legs I crouched down to her level and saw her wide blue eyes.

"I don't want to go back to school tomorrow," she said in a little whisper. I searched her eyes for any sign of tears, but she didn't seem to be about to cry.

"Why? What happened?" I asked carefully, hoping not to set off a tantrum.

"Some of the kids were mean," she replied and I sighed.

"I know exactly what you mean. Now, let's go back inside before we get too wet."

Standing back up, I grabbed Claire under her arms and hoisted her onto my hip. Walking back into the house I shucked off my shoes once again, leaving them to dry near the door, then finagled Claire's sneakers off as well and dropped her backpack to the floor.

"Did you eat snack at school?" I asked, and felt a nod against my neck, "Are you hungry now, or no? We're having pizza for dinner," I murmured back to her, crossing my fingers that she didn't make me go into the kitchen again.

"Extra cheese pizza?" Claire asked quietly.

I breathed out a laugh and nodded, "I'll ask for extra cheese."

"Hey Charlie, mind ordering a pizza with extra cheese on it for dinner?" I called down the hallway, stepping up onto the stairs.

"Sure, Bella. Hey, can you bring Claire in here for a second? I want to introduce her to Jacob. He'll be around the house and I don't want her to be worried that he's a stranger," Charlie called and I dropped my head forward with a silent groan.

"Don't worry Claire, I'll be around the house too. You won't have to be alone with him," I tried to reassure her, but I wondered if I was trying to calm myself down instead.

Walking down the hall towards the kitchen, I could feel my pulse speeding up. It felt more like I was walking towards a firing squad instead of just a normal guy. That's all he was, right? Just a normal guy… A freakishly tall, muscular guy who has a weird growling thing he does… but still just a normal guy.

Everything was going to be fine.

Entering the kitchen I saw that Jake was now leaning against the counter with his hip, making his body slouch a bit. But he definitely didn't look any less intimidating. His arms were crossed making his tshirt stretch tight across his broad shoulders and muscular chest. His eyes trained on me again as I came to a stop in the entry from the hall to the kitchen. My feet felt like they had been cemented to the ground. Had it gotten hotter in here?

"Claire, I'd like you to meet Jake. He's going to be building us a new table for the kitchen. How about that?" Charlie asked with a smile on his face. At least he had trust in this man… Although he probably knew where the guns were so he had no reason to worry.

"Claire, say hello please. It's rude not to," I whispered to her, bouncing her on my hip a bit.

Slowly, Claire uncovered her face from my shoulder and looked over at the big man leaning against the counter.

I wasn't too sure what I had expected her to do. Maybe cry or hide her face again. Maybe even stick out her tongue at him. But I sure as hell did not expect her to wiggle out of my arms and walk straight over to him, holding her hands out for him to pick her up.

"Oh my god, Claire," I was about to chastise her when Jake's onyx eyes met mine and the words slipped off of my tongue. Leaning down, Jake carefully took Claire into his thickly muscled arms and let her nestle her head on his shoulder. I looked over at Charlie who seemed just as surprised as I did, but he too had refrained from saying anything.

My eyes shifted back to Jake and I could've sworn that his lips were moving slowly, next to Claire's ear, but I couldn't hear any words.

"So, how about that pizza, Bells? Jake would you like to stay for dinner?" Charlie asked. I could feel my heart seizing in my chest. This guy was holding my little sister, looked as if he could snap her in half with absolutely no trouble at all, and Charlie wanted him to stay for dinner?

"I don't know about tha-" I started to speak in a hoarse voice, my pulse thundering.

"That's alright, Chief. I have to get back to the rez soon, otherwise the boys will have my head. Thank you, though," Jake rumbled in his voice honey rich voice, "I should be all set with these measurements and I'll be back soon to take care of it."

Charlie nodded in reply and picked up the phone to dial.

I could only stare as Jake pushed away from the counter and walked towards me. As his eyes met mine I dropped my gaze to the floor, unable to resist the impulse to do so. It didn't feel right, staring at this man directly in the eyes.

"I believe this belongs to you," Jake's voice was quiet and thick like melted chocolate. Before I knew what was happening, Jake had transferred Claire's tiny body back into my arms. I could physically feel the warmth that radiated off of his body, like a blazing fire. It took me a moment to realize that Claire was dead asleep in my arms. But before I could wonder how he'd managed to do that so quickly, I felt his large, burning hand cup my jaw and pull my face upwards so that I had no choice but to look into his eyes.

They were dark, flaming onyx. So dark that I almost couldn't see his pupil, and they looked like twin black holes, ready to obliterate me.

Jake's hand seemed to be searing my skin with it's heat, although I felt that I could not pull away no matter what happened around me. It was almost as if he was looking for something.

Then after seconds, minutes, maybe even hours, hell I wasn't sure, he seemed to find what he was looking for. A smile graced his lips, though it was the faintest thing I'd ever seen on someone before. He nodded in a small downward movement, like he was approving of something, and then he straightened up to his full height again. My head tipped back to keep the eye contact from my five foot four height, and I felt his hand slide from my jaw, back into my hair. It stayed there for not even a second, but the touch felt intimate and scorched every nerve in my body.

And then he was gone.

He might have called out something to Charlie, who had been speaking on the phone through the entire ordeal I had just gone through.

Blinking dazedly I turned in time to see the door close, and heard Charlie hang up the phone behind me.

"Pizza should be here in twenty… Bella? You okay?" Charlie asked.

"Uh… Yeah, I'll be fine," I muttered, "Call me when dinner's here."

I didn't wait for a reply as I marched up the stairs towards the tiny shared bedroom.

I had some sorting out to do.

* * *

_Yes, Bella... Go and sort things out... So school was interesting. It's unfortunate that people like Lauren actually exist in this world and aren't just fictional. And what do we think about Jake's intro? Leave a comment if you would like to, and thank you so much for reading!_**  
**


	4. Chapter 4

_You guys seriously rock my socks off. I love you all and I can't thank you enough for your kind words! I'm so happy everyone is intrigued! I hope you like this chapter just as much. Also, as a little side note, I may not post the next chapter tomorrow morning, but rather the day after. Today was pretty busy (my boys parents are visiting), and I've only finished half of the next chapter! Thanks for understanding!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story._

**Chapter 4**

That night I lay in bed with Claire snoozing in my ear and my thoughts buzzing in my head like a swarm of angry bees.

No matter how hard I tried I could not fall asleep, despite the fact that yesterday it had been so easy for me. It was frustrating, and I tossed and turned in the tiny bed, made even smaller by the sprawling four year old beside me.

Staring up at the dark ceiling I began to dread the next day at school.

I'd have to face all of those people again. Even the ones that I hadn't met, if they hadn't known who I was yesterday, they would know me as the new girl who liked to punch people. That wasn't exactly the image I had been aiming for. Although maybe I had managed to weed out all of the moronic sheep in this small, sleepy, narrow minded town.

Shifting again on the bed, I could feel my pants riding up my calves and Claire had started to snore softly.

Groaning quietly I extricated myself from Claire's hold and got out of bed. I debated going downstairs and getting some food, but honestly I wasn't too hungry. Instead I pushed down the legs of my sleep pants back into their place and grabbed my sweatshirt off the dark ground. Slipping out of the room, I crept down the stairs and walked towards the kitchen.

The floor was cold under my bare feet, but I continued across the linoleum floor and unlocked the back door leading to the backyard.

The door squeaked a bit, but not enough to alert Charlie upstairs. I hoped that Claire didn't wake up before I got back. Maybe some fresh air would help to clear my mind.

Stepping down the wooden stairs, I stepped into the cool, wet grass and wiggled my toes. The feeling was enough to help my shoulders droop a bit from their tense place around my ears. Rolling my head back along my shoulders, I breathed deeply the cool fresh air that swept through the boughs of the trees in the forest only twenty feet away.

As I had done multiple times over the past couple of weeks, I began to think about what I would be doing if all of this hadn't happened.

I'd probably be back at that enormous high school in Phoenix. Just a little fish in a big pond. No one knew my name, and it was fabulous. I was consistent in my grades, and the only extracurricular activity I participated in was the book club. Although I never had gone to any of the meetings.

Claire would still be in her ballet classes. Her little pink leotards, and shoes in a gym bag in the back of my car so that I could drive her to class after I'd gotten out of school. She'd giggle when I tickled her to make her stop pouting over something silly like, not being able to have ice cream for dinner, or not being able to actually hug the moon before bed.

But Renee would still be depressed.

She'd still drink like a fish when her medications were all out because she'd taken the pills 10 times faster than was prescribed on the bottle. She'd still have fits of rage when she couldn't find her healing crystals that the gypsy girl at Burning Man had given to her a few years back. She'd still want to die.

And I wondered if there was anything that I could have done to stop it.

If I had paid attention to the signs better.

If I'd understood that it wasn't normal. What she was going through wasn't normal.

All I needed was my mother. All Claire needed was her mother.

But we both had to realize that wasn't going to happen.

As my thoughts circled around my head, I found that a few tears had slipped from my eyes. Standing there in the silence of the backyard, I cried slowly for the mother that would never return to her children.

And then I heard it.

My eyes snapped open, and my ears strained. Eyebrows furrowed, I wondered if it had been my imagination. But then again, carried on the night wind was a scream. It was faint, and high pitched, but it was pained.

The pounding in my chest accelerated as I took a few steps forwards towards the tree line. Frantically searching in the dark for anything that might give away where the screams were coming from. But then again, another scream wailed through the night, and as if my feet were carried by some other force, I took off into the woods.

Sticks and thorns dug into the flesh on my feet and they tore at my pant legs, but I continued forward, listening as another high pitched wail came across the wind. With sickening dread I stumbled to a halt against a scream and waited for another sound.

This time when the scream sounded, there was no mistaking it for what it was.

_A child's scream._

Looking back over my shoulder I could barely make out the white side of the house through the thick leaves of the trees.

And then, as though the child in distress could sense my hesitation, it screamed again, sounding as though it was in excruciating pain. The wail was long and keening. It was the kind of scream that could mean nothing less than absolute horror was being bestowed upon them.

Turning back, I pushed away from the tree and continued to run through the dark forest. The snapping of twigs underneath me, and tripping clumsily on the thick roots I couldn't see in the darkness.

Blindly running, I listened to the wind as it carried the child's screams to my ear. Getting louder and louder, until I suddenly burst through a thick tangle of underbrush and came into a large clearing. It was about a hundred yards across, both ways. The tall grass swayed lightly in the breeze, and in the dark I could barely see if anything lay on the other side beside more forest.

Most curious, though was how the screams had vanished. Nothing but the whisper of the grass was left to listen to in the total darkness of the moonless night.

Lifting a hand to my hair I grabbed it viciously. Tugging at it as I turned in a circle. Desperate to hear another scream so that I might be able to help whoever it was that was in paint.

Then it occurred to me, that maybe they weren't capable of screaming anymore.

The sickening feeling of dread washed over me and the image of sticky dark blood and cloudy lifeless eyes tortured me from within my own mind.

Just as I turned in another circle I could feel the panic welling up in my gut again. I wanted to scream and cry. I wanted to shout at the heavens and ask God if I was losing my mind.

Sinking down to my knees on the wet ground I leaned my face into my hands and began to cry in earnest. The tears were big and fat, and it got to the point where I was heaving for breath. They were ugly cries. The kind that couldn't be stopped no matter how many consoling words were said. Nothing could fix the aching gap inside of my chest. The one that felt like a knife plunging inside of me every time I took a breath.

The energy that I had on the run through the forest seemed to drain out of me, and I could feel my body sagging closer to the cold, wet ground.

Maybe if I closed my eyes, just for a while.

I hadn't had a proper night's sleep in so long.

Just a few minutes and I'd be awake again. That was just how it worked.

Maybe this was all just a terrible dream and in the morning I would wake up to Renee singing songs from the fifties in the kitchen, burning some eggs and writing down words to a poem she'd had her own dream about.

And as if my thoughts warmed my soul, the frigid feeling of the ground had seemed to melt away. Giving way to a searing warmth that pushed directly through to my heart. It encompassed me, and ebbed away the discomfort of the hole in my chest in a way that made me never want to leave it. If I could stay in this warmth for the rest of eternity, I would have been happy.

The warmth of my dream swaddled me, and I fell deeper under its spell willingly. But before I fell into the oblivion entirely, I could have sworn I'd heard my name being whispered.

xXx

When the alarm next to my bed went off in the morning I jolted awake.

I was in my room.

Not out in a field, freezing half to death. In my room.

However as I looked around I realized some things were different.

For one, Claire was still asleep, though she was alone in the bed underneath the window. The second thing I noticed was that despite the fact it was raining, the window was slightly ajar.

A feeling of dread started to creep over my body as I sat up slowly in the pink sheeted bed that should have been Claire's. My eyes searched wildly around the room, as if something was going to pop out at me from inside the closet. However, nothing happened.

A hand raised to my forehead as I felt for a fever.

Had I opened the window last night? It definitely felt hotter in this room than it should have.

Maybe it had all just been a dream?

Swinging my feet out of the bed I looked down and felt my bones lock into place. Horror swept through my veins like ice.

My feet were covered with mud and dried blood, and large tears in the bottom of my pants from running through the underbrush.

The world felt like it had turned completely onto a different axis as I lurched up from the bed, ignoring the pain on the bottom of my feet, propelling myself out of the room and into the tiny bathroom across the hall. I silently thanked God that Charlie still had the bad habit of leaving the toilet seat up as I fell to my knees and emptied the contents of my stomach into the porcelain bowl.

_It was real._

I had run through the forest chasing after that voice. The voice of a screaming child. A child in complete pain.

And then it was darkness. There was nothing beyond that point of laying down in the middle of that field and falling into unconsciousness.

But one thing still stuck in my mind.

There was no way that I had gotten up from that field on my own.

Someone had carried back, and put me to bed.

_Someone had been in the house._

xXx

I barely spoke a word as I got Claire ready for school. I didn't even chastise her when she threw a minor tantrum at the idea of going back to the school with the mean people. My mind was still in tangles, and I knew that if I focused in on anything, I was sure to spiral into another panic attack.

Charlie drove me to school again. I left the car without saying goodbye. Barely registering that he'd said he would pick me up after school.

Just like yesterday people stared a whispered, although for a very different reason this time.

Making my way to my locker, I emptied all of the things I wouldn't need inside of it, and then walked to English class. Sitting in a seat, my thoughts still swirled around me. My heart rate accelerated and I searched for any kind of explanation for how I could have possibly gotten back to my room. Not to mention who those screams belonged to last night.

A shiver raced down my spine and when I heard my name said beside my ear, a small scream left my throat as my eyes focused again.

Standing next to me with her brows furrowed was Angela, the girl who'd sat at lunch with the group yesterday.

"Are you alright, Bella?" she asked in a soft voice. I could tell that she wouldn't believe me if I told her that I was.

"Uhh, just thinking about some stuff. Lost in my thoughts, sorry," I responded, clearing my throat when it sounded rougher than anticipated.

"That's alright. You just looked like you were in your own world. Do you mind if I sit with you today?" she asked again, gesturing at the empty seat beside me. Glancing around I realized that there were no other seats available. No one had wanted to sit next to the crazy new girl that punched people. What a surprise.

"Yeah, sure," I said, quickly pulling my books back on my side of the desk. She slid into the seat and adjusted the thin wire glasses on her nose. The class was still buzzing quietly and I glanced at the clock. Class hadn't even started yet. Today was going to be extremely long.

"You know, you broke Lauren's nose yesterday. Apparently she's got two black eyes and the doctor made her wear a neck brace today," Angela spoke suddenly and I rubbed my palm over my face. Maybe getting bitched out was exactly what I needed to take my mind off of what had happened last night.

"Are you going to bitch me out for it?" I muttered into the skin of my hand, my eyes closed. In the heat of the moment yesterday, it had been obvious that Lauren had deserved it, but now today, it didn't settle well in the pit of my stomach. I had never been the kind of girl to start a fight back in Phoenix. Then again, I hadn't been the girl with the dead mother back in Phoenix.

"Absolutely not. Lauren is notorious for being the biggest bitch in Forks," Angela whispered since Mrs. Geoff had walked into the room. But I barely noticed because I was looking at her with confusion.

"I thought you were her friend?" I asked and Angela snorted lightly.

"Oh please. I may tolerate sitting with the girl at lunch, but I would never consider myself her friend. Especially after she fucked Tyler while he and I were seeing each other," Angela spat out the words like they had left a sour taste in her mouth. I could only sit gaping at her.

"Did she really?" I managed to ask finally.

"Oh yeah… Although she never pursued him afterward. She just wanted to get back at me after Mr. Bernie caught her cheating. She thought I'd snitched on her," Angela smirked slightly, looking at me over the tops of her glasses.

"And did you?" I whispered, half listening to Mrs. Geoff start her lecture.

"Do what? Snitch on her?" Angela whispered back. I nodded. "Of course I did… But she'll never know that. Besides, Tyler wasn't that good of a fuck anyway. Too much bravado, not enough interest in the finer details."

I nearly choked on my tongue as I gasped. Coughing a bit, and trying to process the words that had just come out of this seemingly shy girl's mouth.

"Miss Swan, do you need to get a drink of water?" Mrs. Geoff asked from the front of the room, looking at me with slightly narrowed eyes. Holding up my hand I waved her off.

"I'm fine, just a tickle. Sorry," I muttered the apology, my cheeks heating up slightly in embarrassment. Glancing over at Angela I saw that she had a tiny smirk on her face and her eyes glinted from behind her glasses.

"Sorry... Being the town reverend's daughter has left me a bit curious in the ways of sin," she said and I tried extremely hard not to look like my eyes were bugging out of my head. Maybe I actually was sick, and this entire conversation was in my head. "Anyway, I wanted to congratulate you on punching her. I thought it was well deserved. She was totally out of line with the comments on Edward and your mom."

I flinched unconsciously at the mention of my mother, and Angela noticed quickly.

"Sorry," she apologized, a sincere look on her face.

"It's alright… So was all of what Lauren and Jessica said true? About Edward's mom and stuff?" I asked, looking towards the front of the room as Mrs. Geoff kept rambling.

"Pretty much. It all happened really fast. Everything came out about Edward's mom, Elizabeth sleeping with Dr. Cullen back in February. Apparently it had been going on for a couple of months before anyone found out about it. But when everyone did hear about it, Elizabeth Masen was quick to start telling people that she was knocked up with his baby," Angela whispered, but she hesitated suddenly.

"And then what?" I asked, insanely curious.

"Well… In April, Elizabeth Masen was admitted to the hospital for a lot of internal bleeding and head trauma. Everyone guessed that her husband Edward Sr. had beat her up for the cheating. He had always been known for his mean streak and his drinking problem. She ended up losing the baby, and from there everything got sour really fast. As if it wasn't already a shit show. Just a week after she had lost the baby, she'd gone missing. The Quileute council said that someone had reported seeing a woman jump from the cliffs, and she had been white. The body was never found, and so everyone just thinks that Elizabeth jumped to her death up there."

Angela stopped speaking and I couldn't find the words to say. They seemed to be stuck in my throat, like a big ball. After a few moments of processing all of the information, and swallowing down the feeling as though I was about to vomit I whispered to Angela.

"So, what happened to Edward's dad?"

"Apparently he moved back to Chicago. Said he had nothing left for him here, and had his sister come out to take care of Edward until he turned eighteen. Her name is something weird… I can't remember. But she never comes into town, and no one's ever seen her. Most of us just think that Edward lives alone in his family's mansion on the edge of town. I'm not saying he's a freak, but the kid definitely has some issues. He has to be dealing with a lot," Angela said in a sad voice, giving me a calculating look.

I only nodded and avoided the eye contact with her, letting my thoughts swim around in my head. The people in this town were definitely not as sleepy as they had first appeared to be. Their gossip was exactly what I needed and the thoughts of what had transpired last night floated further and further from my mind.

xXx

When lunchtime rolled around again, I noticed quickly that there were no longer any open spots at the table that Jessica sat at. From my place in the lunch line I could see Lauren sitting with her neck brace on and two purple rings around each eye. She was currently glaring, clearly hoping that the floor would open up into a pit leading to hell and swallow me whole.

I merely looked away after acknowledging Angela's sympathetic look. Throughout English she had proven to be a much more solid person than I had anticipated. Considering she could sit with Lauren Mallory for an entire half an hour and not punch her in the face.

Looking around the cafeteria there seemed to be no open seats. Except for at one particular table, with a certain copper haired outcast sitting, hunched over his tray of food.

Taking a deep breath, and hoping for the best I started walking towards the open table. Quickly sliding into a seat one over from Edward. I didn't want to scare him by sitting directly next to him. At the sound of my tray clattering onto the table, Edward looked up, his bright jade colored eyes narrowing as soon as they saw me.

"I thought I told you to stay away from me," he snapped angrily. I shrugged and picked up my apple.

"It would seem that there's nowhere else to sit. Apparently standing up for people in this town is grounds for complete isolation from society," I muttered, taking a large chunk out of the fruit. Edward merely continued to glare. "I thought it might be beneficial to get to know one another. Seems like I'll be sitting here for a while… At least until Princess Lauren's neck brace comes off. Although, it'll probably be longer, let's be honest," I said under my breath, looking over my shoulder at the bitch in question.

"Look, I'm not looking for charity or anything. Just stay away from me if you know what's good for you," he snapped again, and then stood abruptly from the table, whisking away his tray. He stormed out of the cafeteria, leaving me even more perplexed than I had been yesterday.

Watching his retreating back I saw Lauren whispering something to Jessica beside her, a smirk plastered onto her face. Rolling my eyes I faced my lunch again and ate everything as fast as possible. The sooner I could get through this day, the better.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period, everyone made their way out of the cafeteria. Since I hadn't been to my last two classes the day before, I checked the school map and found my way to the Biology Lab.

Walking into the room, there was a faint smell of formaldehyde in the air. Posters of cells dividing lined the walls, and even a few taxidermied animals were on the window sill. However none of that interested me, because sitting at the back of the room at one of the lab benches was Mr. Edward Masen.

"Fancy meeting you here," I said out loud, walking towards his bench with a what I hoped was a smile that would set his nerves on edge. His glare was ferocious as he looked up at me from the book he was hunched over.

"Why can't you just leave me alone? Or are you mentally challenged and you don't understand what 'leave me alone' means?" he growled.

"Actually, my test scores are quite high. But I think that this is just fate's way of bringing us together," I replied, plopping myself down in the chair next to him. He looked at me as though I was a venomous insect that needed to be killed immediately.

"You're not sitting here," Edward bit out between his teeth. But as he spoke the class began to fill up with more kids.

"Actually, I am. You see, you're a pretty interesting guy. And since I've punched someone in your defense, I think I'm allowed to sit next to you in class," I replied quietly, taking out my textbooks, "Also, I don't have any other friends."

"We aren't friends," he said the word as if it disgusted him.

"Fine, we aren't friends. But I still punched someone for you, and this class is only for an hour. You can deal with it," I snapped finally.

After that he did not respond and I was content with the fact that he hadn't thrown an even bigger hissy fit trying to get me to leave. However as I sat there, directly next to him, my thoughts began to stir inside of my head.

Thinking about how his mother had died. What she had done before hand. How his father had just left him in the care of his sister. Was that even legal?

The poor kid had every right to be pissed off at the world. I definitely couldn't take it personally. After all, he seemed to be handling things much better than I was. But then again, maybe he wouldn't be so angry if he had someone who understood what he was going through? At least to some degree.

The teacher at the front finally started, and to my surprise he told the class that we would be doing blood typing. My heart rate sped up as the supplies was passed out. The teacher stopped at our desk and asked me who I was.

"Oh, Bella Swan… Sorry, I'm new," I spoke fast, nervous about the task he had given us. He nodded, and signed the sheet I had been given yesterday.

I stared at the blood typing kit, and watched out of the corner of my eye as Edward expertly start to do the prep work.

"Uhm… Do we actually have to do this?" I asked, mostly to myself, but Edward was sharp with his answer.

"Of course," his voice was tense, "Why do you have a problem or something?"

"Uh… I just don't like blood," I muttered, staring at the kit. The scars on the back of my hands seemed to burn angrily at the memory of the glass cutting through my skin. My eyes were trained on the supplies in front of me as if it was going to bite me.

"Here, you have to put on the glove first, then open the sterilized needle. Don't let it touch anything. And make sure you have your slide ready," Edward said in a voice that wasn't as angry as before, although definitely annoyed.

I nodded, though my mind was still in a slight daze, trying to fend off the memories that threatened to break into the forefront of my mind.

Pulling the glove onto my right hand, I picked up the small package with the needle inside of it. It opened easily and the needle glinted in the harsh overhead lights. I could feel my heart pick up speed in my chest as I arranged my slide in front of me. Looking at the flesh of my finger, I hesitated with the needle in my hand.

Determined not to look around the classroom, I focused on the tip of my finger.

It was slightly pink, and I could imagine the blood flowing directly underneath the surface.

The memory of a dark, sticky pool and cloudy lifeless eyes flashed through my mind and I dropped the needle back onto the desk. It made barely any noise, but in a flurry of movement, the chair beside me was pushed back quickly and my body was suddenly being held up before it toppled to the floor.

"Mr. Banner, Bella needs to go to the nurse. She doesn't feel well," Edward's voice was clear and confident. The entire classroom went silent at its sound.

"Yes of course, is she alright?" the teacher's voice was heard from the front of the room.

"She's just light headed," he snapped then lowered his voice, "Come on, Bella. You can lean on me to walk."

I couldn't tell if I had nodded or responded in any way, but I found myself leaning into his weight, and walking from the silent classroom. The hallway was empty as Edward led me down towards the front office. He led me into a room just beyond it, and sat me down on one of the squeaky plastic cots in the office.

As I lay down, I could faintly hear Edward talking to someone else. A hand touched my forehead, and a female voice responded to him, but said nothing else.

After what seemed like hours, my eyes finally opened.

Sitting beside the cot on an uncomfortable looking chair was Edward Cullen, in his khaki pants and white button down shirt. His face was unreadable, but he looked at my face as though he was searching for answers. His jade colored eyes were curious, but subdued in the way to make it look like he wasn't going to pry.

"Sorry about that… I don't usually do that," I rasped, my throat feeling like I hadn't had water in three years. Edward shrugged slightly and handed me a paper cup full of water.

Sitting up more, I took the cup gratefully and sipped it. "Thanks."

Again he said nothing, but nodded slowly. I looked around and found that the nurse was nowhere in sight.

"She went to have the office call your father. You've only been out for about ten minutes. I convinced them not to call the ambulance." he finally said.

"Thank God. It would have been awful, going to the hospital," I muttered quietly. Edward didn't respond and I finished off the water. Now it was awkward. Not only had I punched someone in his defense, but I had fainted and he'd dragged me to the nurse's office.

Looking down at my hands clenched around the paper cup, I sighed. "I found my mom, laying in a pool of blood in her bedroom. She'd killed herself while me and my sister had been at school. I'd come home to grab some extra clothes for Claire, for after her ballet class, you know? And I was going to ask my mom if she wanted to go out to dinner… But she was just laying there. Her eyes were open, and there was just… God there was so much blood. For a second I thought that I was dreaming. But then I screamed, and everything just left my head… I had no idea what to do," my voice was just above a whisper, but I knew that Edward heard every word, "Eventually I called the cops… They came and asked a ton of questions. I can't even remember what I said. And for a while I refused to believe it had happened at all."

There was silence in the room, and it made my palms sweat. Who was I to presume that he wanted to hear all of that? The boy practically hated me. In fact, he probably did hate me, but was too polite to say it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to dump that on you," I sniffed. My eyes stung with the tears that tried to break loose, "You're the first one I've told about that… Not even the shrink that the cops sent me too got that out of me. Mostly I just threatened to kill him if he asked me anymore questions. Didn't really help my case to convince him that I wasn't going crazy. And now I'm rambling again, sorry," I muttered again, crushing the paper cup in between my palms. This boy probably thought I was a psycho by this point.

However, instead of another snapping comment from him, his hand gently reached out and rested on my thigh.

I looked up at the contact. It wasn't an intimate touch, and from the look on his face, I felt something deep in my chest. His eyes were clear from the annoyance he'd felt earlier. I could see that he _knew_. He knew exactly what I was feeling. He could see me. For the first time since I had found my mother's body, I felt as though someone could actually _see_ me.

Funny, how it had taken me over 1,500 miles for me to find somebody who understood.

* * *

_Aww. See Edward isn't that bad! He gets it. And what about that midnight run? Sleepwalking? Or something else? Leave a comment if you'd like too, and thank you so much for reading!_


	5. Chapter 5

_thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you kind people! Someone told me that in the last chapter by mistake I wrote 'Edward Cullen' instead of 'Edward Masen'. Sorry for any confusion, but he is not a Cullen in this story! Usually I read over all of my own chapters, and try to get out all the mistakes, but some slip past me! If anyone's interested in being/has been a pre-reader/beta, let me know if you're interested in doing the same for my own stories. Just drop me a PM! I could use some friends who like to read as much as I do ;) Anyway! On with the story, before I keep rambling! Hope you enjoy the chapter!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story._

**Chapter 5**

The next few days progressed in a different way than the first two had.

Edward Masen and I had apparently become best friends, and the entire school knew.

We would sit together at lunch and talk about simple things. He'd tell me about his favorite music, and I would argue that while Debussy was good, sometimes you just needed some good Led Zeppelin. We'd discuss our favorite books, and I'd learned the he was also a sucker for classic literature. It felt as though we had been friends for years before we'd met. Turned out that he actually had a sense of humor when he wasn't a brooding asshole.

People stared and whispered just the same as they had at the beginning of the week. Except now, I didn't care half as much as I had.

Not to mention, there hadn't been any more midnight runs. The cuts on my feet and ankles were healing quickly, and I started to wonder if I had an episode of sleepwalking… Claire had sometimes slept walked when she'd just learned how to walk. She'd even escaped from her crib a few times. It wasn't hard to convince my mind that I had just slept walked and somehow found my way back into Claire's bed. It was perfectly reasonable, and I didn't need anymore weirdness in my life.

Angela had also turned out to be one of the better people in Forks, if not a bit on the horny side. I learned that as the local reverend's daughter she had a large history of sin. She also smoked, drank regularly, and snuck out of her room at least twice a week to go to her boyfriend Ben's house to have sex. If I hadn't thought it was such a funny situation, I would have been appalled at it all.

I was a total virgin in, well… Everything. Unless you counted the awkward first kiss at my sixth grade dance with Andrew Wilson. It had been three seconds of misplaced tongue and palpable disappointment.

She seemed to dislike the other people at school just as much as I did. Except she did a much better job of hiding it.

On friday afternoon, Edward and I were sitting together at lunch as per usual. He had just started to tell me about his classical piano training that had started when he was three.

"Everyone always says I could have been a concert pianist… But I don't know…" he said, looking down at his tray and running his hands through his hair.

"Wow, Mr. Modest over here. Does that mean you're ever going to play for me?" I asked with a smirk, nibbling on a celery stick. Edward suddenly got quiet, and I could feel the mood shift slowly into something darker. "You alright?"

"Yes… It's just, it was my mom that got me started on the piano. She used to play simple songs and let me dance around her when I was a toddler," Edward whispered, picking apart a bagel with his long, pale fingers. My eyebrows furrowed and I put a hand on his wrist, stilling his movements.

"I'm sorry," I murmured, looking into his jade eyes fast enough to see him cover up the look of pain and guilt. He shrugged his sweater covered shoulder and flashed me a crooked smile.

"You couldn't have known," he said softly and I nodded.

Removing my hand I went back to eating my lunch, but was surprised when Angela landed herself in the seat beside.

"What the hell are you doing over here? Lauren's going to shun you," I hissed, looking over my shoulders, "And then she's going to hunt me down because she'll think I stole you from her."

"Oh please, you've already punched her, so we know you could handle it," she rolled her eyes. I looked at Edward who seemed amused at our new guest instead of angry as I had expected him, "How're you, Edward?"

"I'm alright, thank you for asking Angela," Edward responded with the same small smile on his face. Angela nodded, seemingly pleased with getting that greeting out of the way and then fixed me with a look.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked finally, a laugh on my voice.

"Please tell me that you've heard about the party tonight?" Angela gushed, looking at me expectantly.

"Uh, considering that the only two friends I have are you and Mr. Broody, I have not," I responded, ignoring the flick that Edward delivered to the back of my head at the comment.

"Well, you have to come. It's going to be an awesome time. Mike and Tyler are bringing a keg out to the falls, and there's going to be a bonfire. You've got to come," Angela said. Meanwhile her bottom lip began to quiver and her eyes glistened.

"Oh please, nobody is going to want me to be there anyway. You want me to give those assholes a chance to get me drunk and possibly kill me in the middle of the woods?" I asked.

"They wouldn't do that, Bella," Angela huffed, rolling her eyes behind her glasses.

"You don't know that," I pointed at her, completely serious.

"Angela's right. They wouldn't do that. They'll be too drunk themselves to even form a plan. Besides, I'll be with you," Edward spoke suddenly and my head whipped to look at him.

"What? You're supposed to me on my side with this one. And anyway, why would you want to go get shit faced with a bunch of people that think you're a weirdo? You're hiding something," I narrowed my eyes at my traitorous friend. Edward laughed, and I found that his laughter was entirely pleasant to listen too.

"Yes! Thank you, Edward," Angela smirked and I growled under my breath. Crossing my arms and glaring at the two of them, "I'll go. But I make no promises to stay the whole time. While they might not be able to form a plan, I can't guarantee that I won't try to kill any of them," I muttered.

Angela left the table seemingly pleased with getting me to agree to go to the party, and the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Walking to Biology with Edward I gave him a tongue lashing, letting him know exactly how much I did not want to go to the stupid party tonight. However throughout the entire ordeal, a smug smile was plastered on his face.

"Are you even going to try and look like you're sorry?" I huffed at him and he laughed.

"Absolutely not. I think that this will be a very beneficial night for the both of us. It'll be good for us to get out and do something different," he spoke softly. I stared at him, slightly open mouthed.

"Who are you, and what have you done with the Edward Masen who hated everyone three days ago?" I asked him, but he did not respond. He merely took his seat at our lab table and waited for class to start.

I finally dropped the subject of going to the party once I realized that Edward was not going to apologize for agreeing to go. Although I felt in my stomach that I did not want to go to the party at all. Partly because I didn't want to get in trouble for drinking so soon in the year, and mostly because I hated everyone's guts.

Class was slow as usual, and Edward had to help me with most of the things we did, also as usual. Biology was never my strong point, but he was patient with me anyway. Thankfully we had moved away from the blood typing, and were now working towards dissection. Something else I had to look forward to…

We parted ways afterwards with Edward promising to pick me up at nine thirty to drive us to the falls. Grudgingly I agreed and told him to part a little ways down the road and that I would sneak out to the car. I didn't want Charlie to know where I was going. And I'd definitely have to make sure that Claire was already asleep before I left.

When Charlie picked me up from school I talked about what had happened that day. Excluding the invitation from Angela.

"So you and Edward Masen seem to be getting on pretty well," Charlie said, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Yeah. He's a really nice kid. It's pretty unfortunate that this town is full of assholes that are too narrow minded to see that," I responded and Charlie grunted something. His face was getting a bit red, and I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

"Oh my god. You think he's a freak too, don't you?" I declared, understanding hitting me like a brick wall.

"It's not that, Bella. I knew Edward senior and Elizabeth for many years. They were always nice to me, and their boy was a great kid. But Bella, something happened to him after…" Charlie trailed off as we pulled into the driveway.

"After his mom committed suicide? Yeah, it's pretty fucking hard to stay the same after something like that happens. I can hardly imagine what it must be like for him," I hissed angrily and then shoved out of the car and walked quickly towards the front door.

I heard Charlie call my name out after me, but I rushed into the house and sprinted up the stairs to my room. Throwing my backpack off of my shoulder I glared around the room, the anger at his words surging through me. Zeroing in on the lamp sitting on the bedside table, I grabbed it and threw it at the opposite wall. The cord snapped and the pottery shattered on impact making a mess on the carpet, but I didn't care.

How could Charlie have said something like that, knowing that I had gone through exactly the same thing? How was it, that in this town everyone was too blinded by an oddity that they forgot that a this high school boy was still a regular human? He had feelings, and he had lived through a tragedy. One that I understood all too well.

Sinking to the floor on my knees, I started to clean up the shattered lightbulb and the pottery, throwing it into the small plastic wastebin. Some of the slivers managed to cut my finger tips, leaving specks of blood, but I finished the job quickly, and then settled in to get all of my work done before tonight.

I hadn't been sure about going before I'd gotten home, but now I was positive that a party might be exactly what I needed.

xXx

At nine fifteen, I was dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, a black blouse and my black boots.

Dinner had been an awkward, tense affair, but Claire was sound asleep in her own bed for once. I had my cell phone and house key tucked safely into the back pocket of my jeans. I was planning on sneaking out through the window since the tree branches were close enough to swing down onto the ground with.

Silently I opened the window and threw my leg out the window, ducking down so that I could squeeze out. Reaching with my right hand I grasped the tree branch only a foot away from the window, and then threw my other leg out the window and swung out onto the branches. With my left hand I gently shut the window behind me, quiet enough so that I wouldn't disturb Claire.

If she woke up before I got home and alerted Charlie to the fact that I wasn't home, I decided that I would tell him the truth. After what he had said to me today, I wasn't in any mood to do any groveling. If anything, he should be apologizing to me.

Crouching down on the tree branch, I grasped it tightly and then swung downwards. However the momentum made my hands slip, ripping the skin of my palm and making me land in a heap on the ground. The breath left my chest in a whoosh, but I pushed myself up and brushed off the dirt from my back.

Standing up, I jogged to the end of the yard and started walking down the dimly lit street. From my place I could see the shiny silver volvo sitting near the end of the road, quietly humming in the night.

When I opened the door and slid into the passenger side, I could see in the dark that Edward was wearing a pair of jeans and a dark colored longsleeve. It was the most casual I had ever seen him dress.

"Don't you look nice," I commented, and he chuckled, throwing the car into drive and pulling out of the road. "I was beginning to think that you only owned dressy clothes."

"I own plenty of jeans, Bella. I just think that it isn't a bad thing to try and look your best," he responded. I nodded, agreeing with him. Although I would definitely stick to jeans and sweaters myself.

"So how far away is this place?" I asked, trying to see out the window. However, the night was dark and the forest beyond the window was even darker.

"Ten minutes. People are probably already there though," Edward replied. Nodding, I settled into the soft leather seat and fiddled with the radio.

The car ride passed in comfortable silence and when Edward finally turned off onto a dirt road I sat up straighter in my seat. My palms had started to sweat for some unknown reason, and I could feel myself getting more nervous. What if the kids got really upset that we had showed up? Would they do anything to us?

I remembered Angela and Edward's words from earlier and tried to calm myself down. It didn't seem to work.

Edward parked in a small clearing where a couple of other cars were parked, but there was nobody in sight. Getting out of the car I could hear the sound of rushing water in the distance, and Edward walked around the car, giving me a small smile.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Are you sure we should do this?" I asked. I didn't want to sound like a wuss, but I definitely couldn't deny that I was a bit nervous.

"It'll be fine, Bella. Don't you trust me?" he flashed me a crooked smile and I found myself smiling back.

"Yeah, okay. You're right," I nodded, running my hand through my hair as we started walking towards the sound of water. We walked down a short dirt path through the trees that led to a small clearing next to a river. Upstream there was a large waterfall that came barreling over a cliff face, and in the clearing we had come out too was a large group of kids from school. Someone had set up some bluetooth speakers which were playing music and there was a keg off to the side.

No one had seen us arrive, and I searched for Angela, finding her sitting on Ben's lap with a solo cup in her hand and a smile on her face. Walking over to her, she noticed our approach and squealed happily.

"I'm so happy you're here! All of these people are such assholes," she grumbled, and I was sure that some other kids had heard her. I merely laughed at her. She was clearly on her way to being very drunk and her top was pulled down slightly, showing her bra cup to the world.

"Come on, I'll get you a cup!" she cheered, grabbing my hand and hauling me into the crowd of people towards the keg. Some of them seemed to whisper behind their hands, but no one dared to say anything about our appearance.

Filling up two solo cups, Angela passed one to me and then Edward, smiling at us and telling us that we hadn't missed anything interesting yet.

We got to chatting, and soon enough, I was much more calm about being at the party. The beer had definitely done it's job and I felt my head start to feel as though it was floating on my shoulders. The only other time I had gotten drunk was when I had been fifteen and I'd stolen a bottle of sherry from my mom. I'd puked my guts out and spent the next two days in bed.

This was much more fun though.

I was laughing with Ben, Angela and Edward about random things. I felt happy, for once. Maybe this was why Renee liked to drink. Because it made her feel so much better. I definitely wasn't worried about any of the kids giving me a hard time anymore, but I seriously had to go to the bathroom.

"I'll be right back. I gotta pee," I announced, then clapped my hand over my mouth, realizing that I hadn't meant to share that much. Angela snorted with laughter, but Ben was now preoccupied with sucking on her neck and inching his hand higher up her denim clad thigh.

"You gonna be okay?" Edward asked, his eyes still a bit sharp despite the fact that his voice was a bit slurred. I nodded and gave him a smile.

"I'll be back in a minute," I replied, and he looked appeased.

Walking towards the dirt path we had come down, I walked off and into the forest a bit so that nobody would see me going to the bathroom.

I leaned against the tree as I relieved myself. In my dizzy state I tried my hardest to make sure that it didn't get onto my pants, but I couldn't be sure that I had succeeded.

As I stood up again and pulled up my pants I could hear the laughter from the party down the trail. There was a slight breeze, but the beer had done its job and warmed me up sufficiently. Shaking my head slightly, I leaned against the tree to support my shifting weight. Perhaps I'd had too much? Although, I wasn't entirely sure how much was too much.

I was just getting ready to walk back to the party when I heard it.

A snap of a twig breaking underneath heavy weight.

My eyes searched wildly around the darkness between the tall trees, but there was nothing. Only the wind that blew between the branches.

Breathing out shakily, I felt as though I had lost my mind somewhere back at the party. I had to get a grip on myself. Maybe I should drink some of the water from the river and sober up?

Another snap sounded to the left of me, further into the woods, along with the sound of shuffling leaves. My heart leapt into my throat and I automatically felt like I was ten times as drunk as I'd felt before leaving the group.

The sound of more leaves shuffling came from the darkness, but this time they sounded like they were advancing on me. I let out a squeak and turned to run back to the dirt path. Swaying slightly from the alcohol, I pushed off of the trees and stumbled slightly. The footsteps got faster, and I opened my mouth to let out a scream, only to be hit across the back of the head with what felt like a rock.

I smashed forward, holding out my arms blindly and hoping to catch myself.

There was a stinging feeling in my right palm, and my head now throbbed from whatever had hit me. Before I could turn over, however something grabbed hold of my hair and wrenched my body upright and into the air. I whimpered at the feeling of my hair being pulled, but almost as soon as it happened, there was a thunderous snarl that echoed in the air, and I was dropped back to the ground with a thump.

This time I managed to roll over onto my back, pushing myself up onto my elbows and looking around. The leaves had stopped moving and there were no advancing footsteps, and my head felt even more fuzzy.

Reaching back with a hand I felt warmth at the back of my head, and pulled my fingers in front of my face. Blood coated the tips of my fingers and I could feel bile rising in my throat. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the memories, but I could no longer contain myself and twisted to the side, vomiting up everything I had drank in the past hour or so.

Unsure of how long I was sick for, I couldn't gauge at what point someone had knelt down beside me, holding my hair away from my face as I continued to heave up all of the alcohol, along with the food I had eaten for dinner.

I had assumed it was Edward or Angela that had found me. And in my hazy brain I managed to move my lips and murmur a thank you.

"You'll be alright," said a voice that belonged to neither Angela or Edward, but was still way too familiar. Lurching forward, I tried to crawl on my hands and knees away from the owner of that voice. However, I found that a thickly muscled arm had wrapped itself around my waist and pulled me back.

"No! Don't, please," I slurred, trying to break away from the grip. It was no use, since I could have been fighting against a tree trunk and had more luck with moving it.

"Stop it, Bella," came that voice again. It was so deep that it vibrated through my bones. Liquid smoke, and deadly, dark intention. Jacob Black had found me.

I felt my bones lock into place at his words and stopped moving.

"I'm going to take you home," he said in his honey rich voice that left no room for argument, but for some reason I spoke anyway.

"I have to tell my friends I'm leaving. They'll worry," I slurred again. Weakly I moved my head so that I was looking at the enormous man holding onto my body.

His face was only inches away, and although it was dark I could see the glint in his onyx eyes. Long strands of hair fluttered against my bare arms in the wind, and the warmth from his body seeped into my own. It called to me, and I wanted nothing more than to crawl up, underneath his skin and stay there forever.

"Your friends have already left. They were trespassing on Quileute land, and were made to leave. You will make your excuses tomorrow," Jake spoke, looking directly back into my eyes. His voice was soft and patient, but there was still and edge to it that made it clear that any argument was ill-advised.

My head flopped back and forth on my shoulders in what I drunkenly assumed was a nod. Eyelids heavy, I continued to study the chiseled features of his face in the dark. He didn't seem nearly as scary when I was so close. His skin looked so soft. I wanted to touch it.

Reaching up a hand, or maybe it was two hands. It looked like two hands. I stretched my fingertips out and brushed them down over Jake's brow, over his eye and down his cheek. Through my haze I saw Jake's own eyes close and I heard him release a sigh.

"You're not as scary now," I whispered, my mouth feeling as though someone had stuffed cotton balls into it.

Jake's eyes snapped open and he looked at me carefully for a moment.

"I never meant to scare you," he replied in his rumbling bass voice. I nodded and let my head drop backwards.

"I know," I said, although I had almost forgotten what we were talking about.

"I'm bringing you home, Bella. Alright?" Jake's voice traveled through my alcohol induced daze like a whisper. I felt my body being moved and then settled against a firm warmth. I tried to tell Jake that Charlie couldn't know that I was drunk. Not to mention I couldn't have Claire finding out about me sneaking out.

But the more I thought about it, the more the worry seemed to drift away. The warmth that encompassed my body was drawing me deeper into unconsciousness. My eyelids were too heavy to keep open anymore, and the peace that came from having no thoughts to worry about, was too tempting to give up.

xXx

When I woke up, it was a slow process. Like I was swimming up from the bottom of a pool. It felt as though my eyelids weighed a thousand pounds. My head was pounding, but my body was warm. Wrapped around me was a warmth that comforted me.

In my head I smiled. Claire must have snuck into my bed.

I wiggled a bit, to try and wrap my arms around Claire to cuddle her closer. But instead, my hands met with a wall of hot skin and hard muscles.

My eyes snapped open, all tiredness wiped away from my mind and I let loose a scream.

The man beside me was alert in a flash. His eyes were wide and wild and as I scrambled for the end of the large bed, my body was grasped tighter and tucked underneath the enormous, half naked body of whoever I had woken up next to. I was pressed up against the tense, quivering, hot skin of the naked torso of the man, and despite the fact that the heat was oddly comforting, I continued to push against it.

Underneath my ear, a rumbling growl vibrated his chest. So deep that it rolled through my body and made me shiver with the animalistic intent I could hear. It was the sound of a warning.

"Let go of me! Jesus Christ, where the fuck am I?" I growled and continued to push.

Finally the man seemed to understand that there was nothing to be alert about and loosened his hold on me. I jumped at the opportunity and scrambled off of the bed, leaping across the small room towards a sliver of light on the opposite wall. My hands found purchase on some cloth and I wrenched apart the curtains, letting a flood of sunshine fill the room.

Squinting my eyes, I groaned when it made my head throb. Once I had adjusted to the light I turned around and looked at the room. It was a big room. Honey colored wood floors, and forest green walls. And in the middle of the room was an enormous bed, with an equally enormous Jacob Black sitting up against the headboard and staring at me with guarded onyx eyes.

His long hair was disheveled as it hung down over one side of his naked chest. The same naked chest that was unbelievably muscled. Tawny skin flowed over the muscles that seemed to twitch and slither with restrained strength. I was relieved to see that he was wearing a pair of black boxer briefs, but my cheeks still heated with a red hot blush.

Embarrassment flooded through me, but I tried not to show it as I set a glare on my face, "Do you mind explaining to me what the fuck I'm doing here?" I growled, though I knew that he could see through my facade.

"Can you remember anything about last night?" Jake asked in his silky, dark voice. I tried to remember what had happened. I'd been at the party. I'd gone pee… Had something happened after that?

"Sort of," I shot back at him, another blush staining my cheeks. I realized that I was still wearing the clothes from last night, minus my boots.

"You were sick, and it happened to be at the same time that the rest of my boys found your trespassing party. Your friends were on Quileute property, and we sent them home," he said.

"So why not drop me off at Charlie's house? Huh?" I asked him, arching an eyebrow. My eyes kept flickering down to the smooth musculature of his chest, no matter how hard I tried to remain focused. Thankfully he didn't point it out.

"You would've rather had me drop you off at your father's house while you were extremely intoxicated? And do what, have me explain to him that you snuck out at night and were drinking underage with that band of moronic children from town?" Jake growled at me. My eyes hit the floor faster than I thought was possible. His tone made me feel ashamed of myself, but deep inside my chest I could still feel my anger bubbling up.

"Those moronic children are my friends. Not to mention the same age as me, so you know you're just insulting me too, right?" I asked him with an attitude. For some reason, it stung that he thought so little of me.

"It was not an insult. You are still a child. You made a bad decision, and as the adult in the situation, I did what was best," he replied, his tone still biting. My eyes were glued to the ground, unwilling to look up at his onyx eyes, which I knew held some kind of disappointment.

"Right, well. This child is going to go home and make her excuses to Charlie," I ground out the words, hearing my own attitude clear in the words. I looked up slightly, though not in Jake's direction and started walking towards the slightly ajar door on the other side of the room.

As my hand reached for the door knob to pull it open, I was surprised to feel a giant, hot hand wrap around my other wrist. The breath left my lungs in a rush, and my eyes frantically looked over at the large, russet colored hand on my skin. I had to admit that the colors of my pale, cream colored skin and his dark caramel looked incredible next to each other, but that wasn't what I had focused on. I hadn't even heard him get up from the bed, and while his grip was tight, his touch was extremely gentle.

Gaining the courage to look at his face again, I say a battle raging in his dark eyes. I could tell, in that moment that he wanted to say something, but the only words that came out of his mouth were "I will drive you home. It's too far to walk."

I barely nodded, and he let go of my wrist to walk over to a large chest of drawers. Reaching into it, he pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt. Despite the fact that he was covering himself, I still dropped my gaze, a blush heating my cheeks as I remembered how naked he had been. And he had been sleeping next to me. In the same bed.

"What am I going to tell Charlie?" I muttered softly. It wasn't intended as a question for Jake, but he still answered.

"That is for you to worry about, but you should understand that lying, will not be tolerated," Jake said as he walked back to his space in front of me. His voice had dropped again and curled around me like smoke. It's deep, vibrating timbre pulsed through my bones with his words. With my gaze still rooted to the floor, I saw Jake's hand reach out and cup my chin. He gently pulled my face back up so that my eyes were stuck on his own again.

"Is that understood, Bella?" he asked me. I nodded at his words, my eyes never leaving his, "Good. And do not lower your eyes around me. It is not your place."

With those last words, I felt confusion roll of my body. However, instead of opening my mouth to voice that confusion, I kept my eyes locked on his, and then let him lead me through the unfamiliar house, outside towards a shiny red Chevy truck.

On the drive back to Forks there was only silence in the car. Not even the radio was playing.

There were questions buzzing inside of my head that simply wouldn't leave me alone.

He had been right about me lowering my eyes. I always felt the need to do that when he was around. Something about his presence was just overwhelming, and while it frightened me a bit, it also made me feel secure. Which was something that I couldn't wrap my head around. Surely, I should be more afraid of a man who had taken me from the woods, totally drunk off of my ass, and brought me, not to my father's house, but back to his own house. And then there was the way his voice had trembled when he'd asked me not to lie.

It was as if he was issuing a command. However, more disturbing than the overpowering need to follow that command, was how he had made it seem as though I answered to him. And strangest of all, was how comfortable I was with that knowledge.

* * *

_So again, I'm sorry about the delay, but hopefully the Jake appearance made up for it? And what about Bella's drunk, peeing adventure... Interesting things are starting to happen to little miss Bella. Any theories? If you'd like to, feel free to leave a comment, and thank you so much for reading! _**  
**


	6. Chapter 6

_Hello earthlings! I know, I know, I've been gone for WAY too long. I will spare you the ugly details of my RL and just try to say that I won't go so long in between updates again! *Hopefully*. _

_Thank you so much to all of the kind words from everyone for the last chapter and a HUGE thank you to ChrissiHR for being my beta/wonder woman on this chapter. She really made this one sparkle and I am forever grateful! *virtual hugs and bottles of wine* :) Enjoy the new chapter everyone!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story._

**Chapter 6**

When Jacob pulled up next to the curb in front of Charlie's house, I suddenly felt much more anxious than I had previously been. I could only imagine what Charlie would have to say. Not to mention I prayed that Jake said nothing about how he had slept in the same bed as my drunk ass.

My thoughts were a jumble of nervous assumptions of what punishment was awaiting inside that shabby white house and the memory of Jake's half naked body assaulted my mind. There was no denying that he was a good-looking man. He exuded an aura of power no matter what state of dress he was in. With his large frame, his body had taken up nearly the entire space on the bed, despite the fact that the bed itself was one of the largest I've ever seen.

And then there was the way that his caramel skin flowed over those sinewy, thick cords of muscle that roped up and down his arms and around his torso. Jake Black was definitely drool-worthy.

"Come on, little girl," Jake's voice cut through my thoughts like a razor-sharp knife. I jumped at the break in silence and nodded, not daring to look over at him. After he'd told me not to avert my eyes from his anymore, I found myself in danger of getting stuck in those warm molasses pools more than ever.

Pushing open the door of the truck, I sidled up towards the house. Behind me, I could feel Jake's towering presence and the heat that seemed to radiate off of him in waves. Once I got to the front door, I reached into my front pocket and found the key I had stashed there last night.

Gulping down my anxiety, I opened the door and pushed my way inside, Jake following right behind.

I could hear the television on in the living room and upon entering it, I saw that Claire was sitting on the couch, her eyes staring directly at me.

"What are you doing up so early, Claire?" I asked, walking over to her.

"I was watching TV with my new friend," Claire responded simply. I stared at her for a moment and then turned to look at Jake. However, his face was not as confused as my own. Instead, his features were severe and pulled into a frown. His dark eyes bored into my own and then flickered to Claire.

"I have to go," he said suddenly, his voice tight. Without another word, he turned around and I heard the front door open and close behind him.

Stunned, I could not understand what had just happened. Upstairs, I could hear Charlie shuffling around, but my mind was still whirling.

Turning back to Claire, I saw that she had returned to watching cartoons. Looking at her carefully, I spoke, "Who exactly is your new friend?"

Claire shrugged her little shoulder, "She doesn't have a name, but she's sad. I said she can be my friend."

Putting a hand through my hair, I knelt down in front of Claire. Her big forget-me-not blue eyes turned on me.

"Is she an imaginary friend? Because that's okay to have an imaginary friend, baby," I said softly, pushing her blonde curls back from her forehead, but Claire pulled away, a little pucker appearing between her eyebrows.

"She's not imaginary! She's real! She's my friend," she growled at me in her little voice. I backtracked quickly.

"Of course she is. I'm sorry, Claire. When did you meet her?" I asked, playing along. The last thing I needed was for her to run around telling everyone that her imaginary friend was real.

"Last night. She came in through the window. She wanted to go for a walk in the woods, but I was too tired, so we watched cartoons instead," Claire said matter-of-fact and then promptly turned her attention back to the TV.

However, my eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Claire had never been much of a liar growing up. Turned out she was just as bad at lying as I was, but after all of the trauma that we had both gone through, I wouldn't blame her if she wanted to have some kind of imaginary friend to talk to.

The clomping of Charlie's boots on the stairs made me aware of the fact that I still hadn't told him about last night. Thinking about Jake's warning not to lie myself made my palms sweat. He walked into the living room, a glare set on his face. After seeing Claire contently watching TV, he pointed at me and then pointed down the hall to the kitchen.

Sighing, I gave Claire a kiss on the forehead and then walked towards my doom in the yellow-painted kitchen.

Charlie's face was red as I turned to look at him.

"Where the hell did you go last night?" he asked, arms crossed.

"I went to a party out by the falls with some kids in my grade. Apparently, it was on Quileute territory, though, and so it got broken up by the guys down there. Jacob Black took me back to his house since I wasn't feeling well enough to come home. He just dropped me off," I said to him. Telling the truth made me breathless and terrified for the reaction that Charlie would have, but some small part of me felt proud of the fact that I had done as Jake had said.

Charlie didn't start yelling as I had expected, although I was concerned over the shade of red that his face had turned.

"Bella, I know that I was wrong to react the way I did yesterday in the car, but that doesn't mean you can walk all over me and the rules of this house. I'm still your father and I expect you to respect that which means that you follow my rules until you move out of this house. Is that understood?" Charlie asked, his voice deadly calm. I nodded my head, looking down at my muddy black boots. "Now… I assume you've already guessed it, but you're grounded… Until further notice. Give me your phone, please and the only places you'll be going are school and back home again. Got it?"

With another nod, I handed over the cell phone in my pocket.

"Good… Now get upstairs and clean up or something. You look like hell," Charlie said gruffly.

I sighed and nodded again in defeat, but before I left the kitchen I paused.

"Did you know Claire was down here all night watching TV? She's going on about an imaginary friend… So just don't say anything to upset her, alright?" I said. Charlie looked just as perplexed as I had, but I just turned and walked upstairs. A shower was exactly what I needed to clear my head.

xXx

Since the day was unexpectedly sunny, once I had gotten out of the shower, I'd dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I then changed Claire out of her pajamas and into a pink sundress that had been her favorite to wear in Phoenix. Despite the fact I tried to explain to her that it wasn't as warm out here just because the sun was out, she wouldn't listen and donned the dress anyway.

Gathering up a blanket and some of the homework that had been assigned for the weekend, I scooped up Claire and set up in the small backyard.

The grass was slightly damp, and squished between my bare feet, but it was oddly comforting to be outside and feel the sun on my shoulders. Laying down on the blanket, I made sure that Claire was content in her adventure to find the perfect sticks, then opened my books and started to read.

Listening to Claire murmur to herself, I tried to absorb what the pages of my American History textbook were trying to tell me. Unfortunately, the words that told me all about the Allied and Axis powers of WWII weren't quite keeping my attention. The dull ache in my skull from drinking last night made my head heavier than usual. My eyelids drooping, I faintly heard Charlie say that he was going to work. I raised my hand in recognition of what he'd said, and tried to focus again on the words that seemed to blur together on the page.

Claire's little voice began to grow softer and eventually she stopped all together.

Glancing up with squinting eyes I looked around the yard to see what she had gotten up to, only to find that she was nowhere in sight.

Jolting upright on the blanket, I looked around. She wasn't anywhere in the backyard nor was she in the yard of the house next to ours.

"Claire?" I called out loudly, spinning in place. I half-expected her to come out of the house and tell me she'd gone in for a snack.

My heart beat louder in my chest. She had just been here! I hadn't fallen asleep, had I?

"Claire!" I screamed, a note of panic in my throat.

And then I heard it.

Claire's giggle coming from the forest beyond the edge of the backyard. However, it was accompanied by the sound of a woman humming.

"Claire, come back!" I shouted again, not wasting a moment as I jogged towards the tree line. The humming and Claire's giggling started to drift further away on the wind, but my feet felt as though they had turned to stone. Stopped at the edge of the forest, my body's natural instincts were telling me not to even attempt going back into those woods. Something evil lay within the cover of the underbrush.

But as Claire's small giggle turned into barely a sound in the distance, I pushed aside my raging instincts and thrust myself into the dark forest for the second time since arriving in Forks.

"Claire! Come back! Please, you can't go in here!" I shouted as I pushed my way through the thick bushes. It was much different running through the woods during the day. Although the canopy of leaves blocked out most of the rare sunlight from the day, there was a feeling of dread that was much more real. While within the darkness I could have made it all out to be a dream, out in the middle of the day, there was no denying what was happening.

Keeping my pace, I listened and heard Claire's giggle a bit closer this time, but the woman's humming had stopped entirely.

"Claire, we can't play games like this!" I shouted anxiously, pausing briefly in the underbrush. My breathing was ragged from the run and my ears strained to hear the next giggle. With a sinking feeling, I realized that there were no more sounds. I felt entirely alone in the middle of the forest.

From behind me there came a snapping sound, as if someone had stepped on a twig a few feet back from me. It was in that moment that the feeling of absolute horror washed over my senses. My spine tensed and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. By some twisted compulsion, I felt the need to turn around and see what was stalking me.

The footsteps that approached slowly from behind me were deliberate and shuffled the leaves around just enough to give a bit of warning. Twisting my body, my breath shakily left my lungs and I could feel my palms grow slippery.

Turning my head all the way around, my eyes met the source of the noise and a scream tore up my throat.

There before me was a woman dressed in a hospital gown. Her eyes were wide and void of any pupil. Blood stained her clothes and the skin of her pale arms. Her long hair was dark from what looked like dripping blood from her scalp.

I barely had time to look at her before I felt my body being slammed into the ground. The air left my lungs and I was unable to scream again as the terrifying woman had her cold hand wrapped around my throat. I could feel the slippery blood that coated her fingertips as they tightened their hold around my neck. My eyes widened as the woman's face drew closer to my own. Terror shooting through my veins like heroin, I could do nothing but stare at the ghastly, pale and bloodied face. The white eyes stared into mine as if they really could see, and to my horror, the woman's cracked pale lips drew into a smile, revealing several missing teeth, and other bloody ones.

Grasping at the ground, I struggled against her hold, but black spots began to swim on the outside edges of my vision. I could almost feel my consciousness leaving me when out of nowhere a burst of thunder seemed to roll over us.

The vibrations shook my bones and, to my surprise, the woman's head snapped away, looking towards the forest. Still struggling, I clawed at her wrist to try and get her off of me, but when another roll of thunder shook the ground beneath my body, the hand was released, and the body above mine vanished as if she had never been there in the first place.

Coughing and gasping, I drew the air back into my body. My throat felt raw and I couldn't shake the slimy feeling as if the woman was still holding onto me, but I lay there on the ground and tried to breathe.

Listening to the forest around me, I focused on the air that went in and out of my lungs. In the distance, I heard other things. There was the pounding on the ground that sounded like horses running a race, a high pitched shriek of some kind of bird that I'd never heard before and the rumbling of thunder that settled into the very marrow of my bones.

However, when I looked up at the canopy of leaves above my head, the sun still filtered down weakly between the leaves.

And then suddenly there was silence.

My fuzzy brain was not able to keep up with what was happening, but when I heard more leaves shuffle, my fight or flight instincts kicked into high gear.

A warbled shriek left my throat as I flipped my body over and crawled through the dead leaves on shaking arms and legs. Frantically, my eyes sought out cover to hide my body against, or a weapon of some kind. I didn't take the time to notice that the footsteps were heavier and that a rumbling accompanied the person walking towards me.

When I felt a thick arm reach down and grab me around my torso, I did not take a moment to realize that this arm wasn't pale and bloodied, but thickly-muscled and tawny. I screamed again through my raw throat and thrashed against their hold, although it didn't do any good.

"Bella. You're safe now. It's alright," rumbled the deep voice that pierced through my terrified state. I knew that voice. Whipping around, I came face to face with Jake Black.

A very shirtless Jake Black.

His long hair was unbound around his shoulders and his dark eyes flitted over my face, taking stock and extremely concerned.

It was almost as if his presence made all of the terror drift away from my body. My muscles relaxed and my mind slipped back into a calmer state and to my utter embarrassment, I threw myself into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my chest against him, ignoring his naked form for the time being. There was something undeniably safe that I recognized about this man. It was a drastic change from my first thoughts about him after witnessing how he acted in the general store.

In this moment, my body and mind recognized that I was safer in his arms than anywhere else in the world.

He reached around and held me closer to his warmth. Stroking soothingly down my back while he murmured words I did not understand. I was unsure of how much time had passed in his arms when I reared back and began to shake again.

"Claire! Holy shit! We need to find Claire. There's some crazy bitch on the loose! I need to call Charlie!" I rasped the frantic words through my raw throat, struggling to get down from Jake's arms. He did not relent, though, and instead cupped the back of my head to steady it's swiveling as I looked into the woods.

"Your sister is safe. She is with one of my brothers and I can assure you that she is safer with him than with anyone else in this town," he said. The tone of his voice was hushed, and calm. In the back of my mind I suspected that he was trying not to show his concern for what had just happened, in an attempt to get me to calm down.

"That woman! You saw her, right? I'm not going crazy! There was a woman, she had white eyes! Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick," I mumbled, letting my head fall forward onto Jake's broad shoulder as a wave of nausea washed over me.

"You are not crazy, Bella. Everything will be explained when we get back, alright?" Jake said. His voice rumbled through my body and soothed my frayed nerves. I could do nothing else but nod, and let him pull me into his arms. Securing me against his burning hot body, he started walking through the woods again, back through the thick tangle of branches and towards the sunshine once again.

* * *

_Are you thoroughly creeped out yet? I hope so! ;) Leave some feedback if you'd like and thank you so much for reading! _


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